Madrid - Spain's National Court has granted the right of residence to a Nigerian undocumented immigrant because she had suffered female circumcision in her country, press reports said Wednesday.
The 30-year-old woman had been circumcised prior to a planned marriage with an elderly polygamist chosen by her father. The woman fled to Europe.
Her lawyer argued she should be allowed to stay in the eastern city of Valencia on grounds of being persecuted because of her sex, although that type of persecution is not mentioned directly in the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention.
The court agreed that the woman had been "brutally injured physically and psychically, which justifies a fear to return to her social environment."
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The court did not, however, grant her political asylum.
The woman had suffered a milder form of female circumcision which involves the excision of the clitoris.
An estimated 100 to 130 million women have been subjected to circumcision, which causes health problems ranging from hemorrhage to difficult childbirth and even death. - Sapa-dpa
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