One poignant illustration of the contradictions between the Irish State declaring itself ‘raceless’ and the increasing Irish emphasis on ethnic diversity...
...(which means on the one hand that migrants are required to ‘do things our way’, and on the other hiding the State’s homogenising impetus, which – as the US theorist David Goldberg suggests – is ‘heterogeneity in denial’) is the proposed Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill. What I want to talk about this week are the gender implications of some of the prohibitions included in the bill. While gender considerations are not a significant feature of the proposed legislation, they are not highlighted in the opposition to the proposed bill either.
The African Women’s Network, AkiDwA, together with several immigrant support groups and women’s rights groups, has taken the initiative in pointing this out, and have been in the forefront of a submission regarding the proposed bill to the Dàil Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights. The submission focuses on Ireland meeting international legal obligations for female asylum seekers and refugees.
It notes that gender-related abuse and sexual violence can be extremely traumatic and can impact on women’s ability to present their asylum applications, and proposes that procedural and evidential barriers which may hinder women’s access to the asylum determination process be removed. One particular issue that relates to asylum applications by women is female circumcision or female genital mutilation (FGM). Between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM. In Africa alone, about 92 million girls aged 10 years and above are estimated to have undergone FGM.
The practice is most common in the western, eastern, and northern regions of the continent. According to Yemisi Ojo, founder and national co-ordinator of Integration of African Children in Ireland (IACI), FGM is a harmful practice that not only impairs a woman’s sexual pleasure, but can also be dangerous to the lives and health of women and girls, and endanger newborn babies. Ojo, who spoke at a recent seminar on the topic in Dublin, stresses the need to raise awareness about FGM through data collection, training and campaigns, but also through a strategy that will impose legal consequences in Ireland. The debate about FGM has not yet begun in Ireland, yet some women, whose daughters were in danger of being circumcised if they were returned to Africa, have had their asylum applications rejected and were forced to return.
The submission by AkiDwA and sister organisations recommends following the UNHCR’s 1991 Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women. The submission also allays government fears that a large number of asylum applications by women might result from such guidelines. Interestingly, Canadian immigration has provided for genderbased claims for over a decade, yet Canada has not seen a huge rise in gender based asylum applications. This submission has indeed been the only document to discuss the gender implications of the proposed bill, and it c o u l d definitely become a focal point for a gender campaign around issues of immigration, asylum and citizenship.
