NPR's Libby Lewis reports on a Nigerian woman who is trying to have the practice of female genital mutilation accepted as a violation of the anti-torture convention, which the United States has signed. The woman lives in Dallas, but is here illegally and fighting deportation. The woman's claim is that she and her 3-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, would likely be subjected to the mutilation ritual which is practiced in some African cultures. If her argument is accepted, it could open the United States to many African women who otherwise could not move here.
Copyright 2003 NPR
