Tahirih is inspired by principles of the Baháʼí Faith, including the belief that equality between women and men is necessary for peace and unity in society.[1] The organization is named after Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in 19th-century Persia who campaigned for women's rights.[2]
History
Founding
Layli Miller-Muro founded the Tahirih Justice Center in 1997 following the Matter of Kasinga, a landmark asylum case in which Miller-Muro was involved as a law student.[3]
At the age of 17, Fauziya Kassindja fled her origin country of Togo and sought asylum in the United States to escape a forcedpolygamous marriage and imminent female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).[4] She went through Ghana and Germany before arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where she immediately requested asylum. Kassindja was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) until 1996. Although an Immigration Judge initially found Kassindja "excludable as an intending immigrant, denied her applications for asylum and withholding of deportation, and ordered her excluded and deported from the United States" in 1995, Kassindja was unanimously granted asylum in June 1996 by the Board of Immigration Appeals, setting national precedent and establishing gender-based persecution as grounds for seeking asylum in the U.S. Following the case, Kassindja and Miller-Muro co-authored a memoir, published by Random House, titled Do They Hear You When You Cry (1998).[5]
Spurred by the widespread media coverage of Kassindja's case, the United States Congress passed legislation to define female genital mutilation/cutting on a minor as a federal criminal offense, which went into effect on March 30, 1997.[6]
After discovering that few organizations offered legal assistance to women seeking asylum or refugee status in the Washington, D.C. area, Miller-Muro founded the Tahirih Justice Center to build on the accomplishments of Matter of Kasinga and to provide free legal services to immigrant women and girls fleeing to the U.S. from gender-based violence.[7] In 1998, Tahirih hired its first paid staff to represent women seeking asylum from gender-based persecution.
During this period, Tahirih launched its Public Policy Advocacy Program and began offering in-house social services case management to its clients.
In 2000, Tahirih advised the U.S. State Department in the conceptual development of legislation that became the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which established new visas for victims of trafficking (T visas) and victims of serious crimes (U visas).[9] As a result, Tahirih began representing survivors of human trafficking and working closely with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to ensure compliance with the distribution of T and U and visas.
In 2001, Tahirih launched the Campaign to Prevent Abuse and Exploitation through the International Marriage Broker (IMB) Industry to address the abuse of so-called "mail-order brides". Alongside law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Tahirih successfully litigated Fox v. Encounters International in 2004, a case that marked the first time in the United States that an IMB had been held liable for negligent conduct that put a woman at serious risk in an abusive relationship and kept her in danger by misleading her as to her legal options.[10]
Drafted by Tahirih, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush as part of the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act.[Public Law 1] IMBRA enabled foreign women to receive critical information before marrying men through these agencies, as it "requires that the U.S. Government provide foreign fiancé(e)s and spouses immigrating to the U.S. information about their legal rights as well as criminal or domestic violence histories of their U.S. citizen fiancé(e)s and spouses".[Public Law 1]
2006–2010
During this period, Tahirih expanded its services and field office locations, beginning to offer family law representation and opening its first satellite offices in Houston, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland.
In 2008, Tahirih filed an amicus brief for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Barry v. Mukasey,[11] arguing that FGM/C can cause permanent and continuing harm to women who are forced to undergo the procedure, often leading to ongoing health issues.[12] Barry was denied asylum as a direct result of the Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of A-T-, where the court held that past FGM/C alone cannot provide a basis for a fear of future persecution,[13][14] and Matter of A-K-, where the court held that a parent cannot receive derivative asylum to protect a United States citizen child from FGM/C.[15]
In 2009, Tahirih released a report titled Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution, which addressed the gaps in gender-based asylum protection and how women and girls are especially impacted by current immigration laws and policies for asylum seekers, including expedited removal, mandatory detention, and the one-year filing deadline.[16] Following the release of this report, Tahirih worked with congressional representatives to introduce the Restoring Protection for Victims of Persecution Act in 2010, a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the one-year filing deadline for applications for asylum in the U.S. However, the bill was not enacted.[17]
With provisions to strengthen the protections for women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution drafted by Tahirih, the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 was introduced to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act and reaffirm the United States commitment to protecting refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries, although this bill was not enacted.[18]
In 2011, Tahirih conducted the first-ever national survey on forced marriage in immigrant communities in the United States, which documented as many as 3,000 cases of forced marriage in the U.S. over a two-year period.[19] In response to the results of the survey, Tahirih launched its Forced Marriage Initiative and National Network to Prevent Forced Marriage.
Tahirih began its campaign to end child marriage in the United States with the aim of changing state laws that make child marriage legal and fail to protect minors from "forced marriage, human trafficking, and statutory rape disguised as marriage".[20] In 2016, Tahirih drafted and advocated for the bipartisan passage of SB 415 / HB 703, a bill that made Virginia the first state in the country to limit marriage to legal adults, meaning individuals over the age of 18 or court-emancipated 16- or 17-year-olds.[21] The bill, which addressed findings that 4,500 children had been married in Virginia between 2004 and 2014 according to the Virginia Department of Health,[22][23] was signed into law by Governor Terry McAuliffe and went into effect on July 1, 2016.[24]
In Texas, Tahirih helped draft and drive forward SB 1705 / HB 3932, a bill that limits marriage to adults age 18 or older, with an exception only for court-emancipated 16- or 17-year-olds who have been given the full legal rights of an adult.[25] The bill, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June 2017, helped close the legal loopholes that made Texas the state with some of the highest number of child marriages in the country.[26][27]
In August 2017, Tahirih released Falling Through the Cracks: How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today's America,[28] a report that analyzed the minimum marriage age laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, providing state lawmakers and advocates with the information they need to pass laws that protect children from the harms of child marriage.[29]
Following the release of the United States Department of Homeland Security's new Victim Information and Notification Exchange (DHS-VINE) in 2017, Tahirih and partner organizations discovered that this public database contained identifying information about immigrant victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and other crimes.[32] Tahirih requested that Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) immediately remove all confidential information from the database, citing that DHS was prohibited from disclosing such information under federal statute.[33] In response to Tahirih's advocacy, ICE removed the federally-protected information from DHS-VINE.[34]
2014–present
Making Progress, But Still Falling Short: A Report on the Movement to End Child Marriage in America
Making Progress, But Still Falling Short outlines what more needs to be done to end child marriage in America both at the state and federal level. It contains the latest analysis (updated November 1, 2022) on all thirty states that have recently enacted laws to end or limit child marriage, calling out features that make them strong or weak.
Surviving Deterrence: How U.S. Asylum Deterrence Policies Normalize Gender-Based Violence
Surviving Deterrence: How US asylum deterrence policies normalize gender-based violence is a joint report by Oxfam and the Tahirih Justice Center that documents how migrants and asylum seekers experience gender-based harm as a consequence of deterrence-driven US asylum policies. First, it finds that US asylum deterrence policies foster conditions that cause gender-based violence (GBV) to proliferate at the US-Mexico border. Second, it finds that the US asylum process is woefully trauma-uninformed and systemically disadvantages and re-traumatizes survivors of GBV who are ultimately able to apply for relief. The report concludes that by choosing a deterrence-based approach to asylum, the US is complicit in systemically harming and devaluing the lives of women, girls, and LGBTQI+ individuals desperately seeking access to the asylum process as enshrined in US law. These policies, moreover, normalize GBV as an inevitable consequence of pursuing safe haven in the US.
Ensuring Equal and Enduring Access to Asylum: Why 'Gender' Must be a Protected Ground
Uplifting Immigrant Survivors: A Report on the Project Empower Guaranteed Income Pilot
Project Empower is a first-of-its-kind guaranteed income (GI) program designed to support immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. This program offered unconditional, regular cash transfers of $1000 per month to 10 Tahirih clients, all survivors of domestic violence with a child or children, for six months. A new report from Tahirih and our partner, My New Red Shoes, discusses the experiences and lessons learned from the first cohort.
Operations
"The Tahirih Justice Center is a national, non-profit organization that protects courageous immigrant women and girls who refuse to be victims of violence. We elevate their voices in communities, courts, and Congress to create a world where women and girls enjoy equality and live in safety and with dignity.”
Tahirih utilizes the services of pro bono attorneys, medical providers, and other professionals to serve its clients.[38]
Public policy advocacy
Tahirih's engages in non-partisan public policy advocacy focused on ensuring that U.S. laws and policies protect immigrant women and girls from violence and exploitation.
Tahirih's policy advocacy focus areas include protecting the rights of immigrant survivors of crime, promoting access to asylum for women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution, ending the detention of refugee women and children, preventing abuse and exploitation through the international marriage broker industry, and addressing protection gaps for individuals facing forced marriages.[39]
Forced marriage protection
Through its Forced Marriage Initiative, Tahirih provides support and assistance to individuals in the United States who are facing or fleeing forced marriage in the U.S. or abroad.[40]
Training and education
Tahirih offers training and education programs to front-line professionals, including attorneys, judges, police officers, healthcare staff, and social service providers in order to help them support immigrant survivors of gender-based violence.[41]
Organization and structure
The Tahirih Justice Center is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of 20 independent voting members that oversee the organization's functions, establish its strategic direction, and maintain the organization's financial health.[42][43] Each field office also has locally based advisory councils that provide guidance and ambassadorship for the organization.[44] Archi Pyati is CEO and Layli Miller-Muro is Founder.
Tahirih currently has offices in Greater Washington, District of Columbia, Baltimore, Maryland, Houston, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
Criticism
International marriage broker agencies cite the alleged low levels of divorce among their clients, compared with the American national average, as proof of success. Tahirih counters that many of the men who use these brokers are repeat abusers looking for their next victim.[45] Miller-Muro, Tahirih's Executive Director, stated that "The agencies have a financial incentive to ensure the satisfaction of their paying clients – the men – but there is no comparable incentive to safeguard the woman."[46]
When describing the Matter of Kasinga and the associated media attention, anthropologist Charles Piot was concerned about the perpetration of possibly negative and racist stereotypes about Africa.[47] In an analysis of several New York Times articles about the case, Piot called the "evocation of images of the immutable nature of patriarchal tradition" in Africa "extraordinary".[48] Tahirih argues that several cultural practices in the world have adverse health effects that often go unnoticed because of poor education among the local community.[49] Tahirih posits that many of the subjects who undergo practices such as female genital cutting are uninformed about the potential pain and other consequences that result from it.[49] Since Tahirih views these issues as ones relating to human rights, it believes in the protection of individuals who may experience these acts.[49]
Publications
Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution (2009)[16]
Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States (2011)[50]
Righting the Wrong: Why Detention of Asylum-Seeking Mothers and Children in America Must End (2015)[51]
Understanding State Statutes on Minimum Marriage Age and Exceptions (2016)[52]
Falling Through the Cracks: How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today's America (2017)[53]
Awards and recognitions
Tahirih Justice Center
2016 Hispanic Bar Association of DC Hugh A. Johnson Jr. Memorial Award (Greater DC Office)
2014 Social Impact Business Plan Exchange Competition Finalist
2013 Night Court Pro Bono Award (Houston, Texas Office)
2008 The Washingtonian Best Local Charities Award
2007 Washington Post Award for Excellence in Non-Profit Management
2002 The Washington Area Women's Foundation Leadership Award
^ abIMBRA can be found in Subtitle D (Sections 831-834) of Title VIII, Public Law 109-162 ("The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005"), and was subsequently codified at 8 USC §§ 1184(d), 1184(r), and 1375a
References
`Abdu'l-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace. Wilmette, Illinois: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982. ISBN0-87743-172-8.
Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa, ed. Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. ISBN0-8122-3924-5.
Kassindja, Fauziya and Miller-Muro, Layli. Do They Hear You When You Cry. New York: Random House Inc., 1998. ISBN0-385-31994-0.
^SCHMIDT, Chairman. "In re Fauziya KASINGA, Applicant"(PDF). U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Board of Immigration Appeals.
^"Asylum". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
^Abusharaf 2006, p. 224. "... they [the arguments by the lawyers and the media] evoked and inserted themselves into a genealogy of racist stereotypes about Africa that have long mediated the West's relationship to the continent. In so doing, they glossed over complex local realities and once again fictionalized and fetishized Africa as the West's Other."
A video report on Tahirih Justice Center, by Leyla Haidarian, May 29, 2007, elham.tv (11 min 39 sec). Note: A very small spoken part of this reportage is in Persian without English subtitles.
