I was so ashamed of the U.S. reading this book! This is such a personal and vivid account of what Fauziya went through in order to live freely. I was inspired and awed by her strength as well as the strength of those who worked in the legal system on her behalf. I'll never forget this book. I highly recommend. ( )

Born into a happy middle class family in Togo, the author's life suddenly undergoes a horrific change when her beloved father suddenly dies. His siblings - hostile to his wife- seize the property, evict her, and arrange for the teenage author to be removed from school and become fourth wife to a much older man...and undergo FGM first. But her escape to Germany, and later the US brings a lengthy spell i grim American detention centres and jails until human rights workers can get the ruling against her overturned.
There are a number of autobiographies on this theme, and I found this more readable and engrossing than some others. It certainly gives a depressing slant on the whole topic of how immigrants are treated.
I did find it (at almost 700 pages) a tad long. ( )

This book made me really interested in the process of claiming asylum. I've never thought much about asylum, but reading a personal account of someone suffering through the process really made me more interested in learning more about those seeking asylum. i went through a phase of reading a lot of books written by and about people in prison, all of which have been depressing to read, but her story added a whole new dimension. she had to suffer all of horrible things that happen in prison without even having a complete understanding of united states culture. i hope that everything she suffered through really did help other women who are claiming asylum for gender based persecution ( )

True story told by Fauziya Kassindja of her life growing up in Togo Africa in a loving, wealthy family with a father who adored her, a loving mother and many sisters and 2 brothers. She tell us about what her life is like as a child, and a muslim and a cherished child. When her father dies the family's future is turned over to her father's brother and we see the darker side of tribal customs mainly, arranged marriages. Fauziya is to be married to a much older man who already has 3 wives. She also will be circumcised in what is know as Female Genital mutilation. With her sister's help she escapes and is one a plane to Germany. From Germany she flies to the US where is asks for asylum but gets thrown in jail where she suffers horribly. The rest of the story shows us the terrible treatment a refugee faces in prison and also shows us Fauziya's immense courage. We meet her legal tam and follow the events that lead to her eventual parole and release.
it's nearly impossible to believe that this is a true story.
A totally amazing book. So glad I read it. ( )

Fauziya courageously escapes the horrible fate that awaits her--a prison constructed by culture and tradition. She hopefully seeks political asylum in the U.S., and her nightmare actually begins as she's bound in a prison of steel, brutality, and bureaucracy. I read this candid autobiographical story in one night, and I'm not a speed reader! It's suspenseful, depressing, and thought-provoking. Fauziya has a lot to show us about culture, human rights, the nonsensical & hypocritical politics of the U.S., human nature, and "freedom." Fauziya fights for the right to be recognized as human, and ultimately succeeds.
Julie
( )

This book made me really interested in the process of claiming asylum. I've never thought much about asylum, but reading a personal account of someone suffering through the process really made me more interested in learning more about those seeking asylum. i went through a phase of reading a lot of books written by and about people in prison, all of which have been depressing to read, but her story added a whole new dimension. she had to suffer all of horrible things that happen in prison without even having a complete understanding of united states culture. i hope that everything she suffered through really did help other women who are claiming asylum for gender based persecution. ( )

Similar to other books regarding arranged marriages, predictable ( )

This is a first-hand account of what happens inside the women's section of an immigrant detention center (or the sections of a state prison or local jail that receive money from the INS to cage immigrants). The account is clearly written and the descriptions are horrifying. Either Kassindja or the person who helped her write the book also included facts and stats that put some of these horrifying realities into the context of racism (e.g. Kassindja had assumed that, because all of the immigrants around her are people of color, Whites do not have immigration issues. However, she (or her co-author) notes that, in reality, White immigrants facing deportation hearings or asylum proceedings are far more likely to be allowed to stay *outside* of prison while awaiting their hearings) and profit (e.g. the INS, in the mid-1990s, paid app $50 a day per person to the jails/prisons that agreed to cage them).

What bothered me (enough to take 2 stars off the book) is how the book falls into the binary of "good immigrants" and "bad criminals," as if women who have broken the law are somehow deserving of all the inhumanities and atrocities. While the book doesn't explicitly state that, it does give that general feeling, esp when Kassindja describes being housed with non-immigrant "convict" women. I understand that, at the time, she was frightened and probably bought all of the myths about women in prison, but given that someone (Kassindja or her co-author or her editor) took the time to put the farce of immigrant detention policies into context, I wish that that person (or those persons) had also added some facts in about the reality of women who end up in prison (i.e. they don't all smash chairs into each others' heads and they are not all scary monsters). For example, Kassindja was frightened when placed in a cell with a non-immigrant woman who had been convicted and sentenced to prison. The woman was a chain smoker, but when Kassindja, whose asthma got worse when around cigarette smoke, timidly asked her not to smoke in their shared cell, the woman agreed not to. But nowhere in that part of the book--or after--do any of the writers point out that, contrary to popular tv shows, women who end up in prison are not any more unreasonable, scary, violent, etc., than most of the women who never set foot inside a prison. (As someone who has worked with women currently in prison and women who have been released from prison for over a decade, I can attest to this.)

I also found the last chapters, which outlined the media exposure strategy that Kassindja's legal team used, very interesting and helpful, especially the lesson (not explicitly stated) that one can't rely on the government to do the right thing, but that public opinion and media exposure can shame them into doing so. (It did make me wonder though just how much more public opinion & media exposure would be needed today since all of the atrocities that Kassindja endured while in prison still exist today) ( )

Heartbreaking story ( )

This is the true story of an African girl, Fauziya Kassindja, who sought asylum in America to escape FGM (female genital mutilation) and an arranged marriage to a man 30 years her senior. Her family were devout Muslims, but her parents were more traditional and opposed FGM. Because her father was well-to-do he was able to protect Fauziya and her sisters from this practice. When her father died, Fauziya, who was only 17, was put on an airplane and sent to Germany to escape. She had only a suitcase, no contacts, and no knowledge of the language. After a couple of months she made her way to America because she had heard what a welcoming country this is. What a welcome she received. She was thrown in prison, sometimes with hardened criminals for 14 months. Until I read this book, I never realized how horrible refugees are treated. I never realized how horrible prisoners are treated. Not even the most basic human rights are respected. I didn't even knew that much about FGM. Know I know that hundreds of thousands of women are put through this ordeal, most often with no anesthesia. Girls of all ages go through this depending on the tradition of their culture, from infants to grown women. They have no choice; they have no voice. They all experience excruciating pain, sometimes severe bleeding, infections, and even death. This practice devalues women. What impressed me about Fauziya is that she never ever lost her faith in God. Every day she made time to pray follow her faith the best she could. I guess I can say this book was a real eye-opener for me. ( )

This is a book about an important subject: the work to get crimes specifically _targeted toward women recognized as crimes against humanity. Domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, weaponized rape, enforced impregnation, enforced abortion are all crimes that _target women, and the lawyers involved in the Kassindja case worked to make them a recognized basis for claiming asylum. The book also covers the imprisonment of immigrants and the terrible conditions inside prisons. Lawyers, for a change come off as hard working, dedicated agents of social justice (except, strangely the ones who are paid). ( )

This is an excellent, powerful and disturbing memoir/true story about a Togolese woman's escape from genital mutilation at the hands of her decades-older husband (of which, she is the fourth wife) and cruel aunt ~ all on the heels of her Father's death (whom she loved greatly). Ms. Kassindja's story is harrowing enough right there, but most of her story, in fact, takes place in U.S. prisons, where asylum seekers live out their days. As with most people, how horribly these already persecuted refugees are treated is one of the biggest eye openers in decades of reading. At times, they are treated more cruelly and worse than American prisoners in for murder or other felonies. The ending is ultimately uplifting, as it says on the cover, as Ms. Kassindja does get asylum, but at a very, very steep price. This is a well written book and the law was fascinating (I am a lawyer though), the hearings and process frighteningly realistic and as they often are, futile and frustrating. I do feel this book was a bit long and could have been edited down some, but that is a small complaint. A lot happened and Kassindja paved the way way for other women seeking asylum based on gender-based persecution (rape, FGM and torture). Highly recommended for a reader who would like to seek change in the world on a global level and to find out what really happens to asylum seekers once they enter the United States, and the legal system as well. ( )

One of the trickiest issues in today’s world is that of cultural relativism and cultural imperialism – most sensitive and intelligent people realize that different cultures have not only different customs, but also an entirely different mindset and very different ways of navigating the shoals of life. But when is a custom, however rooted in tradition and antiquity, just plain wrong – and who gives us the right to make that decision? I have always relied on the venerable philosophy of the late, great Robert A. Heinlein to determine what “sin” is – anything that hurts another unnecessarily. For others, “sin” is whatever their holy scriptures defines as evil. Today, a major contentious international and cultural issue is that of FGM (female genital mutilation) – the custom in many tribal cultures of ceremonially removing a woman’s external sexual parts. While many Western human rights organizations label this custom criminal, particularly since often it seems to be done without the girl’s consent, others believe that Westerners have no business judging another culture’s traditions – however shocking and horrifying we may find these.

This book is about one young girl’s determination to escape the traditional customs of her tribe – female genital mutilation, and a forced marriage to a man she didn’t love and did not wish to marry. Unfortunately, her efforts to escape her fate landed her in several American “prisons” – known as detention facilities, they were indeed prisons in all but name. This true story is mostly about Fauziya Kassindja’s struggles to survive emotionally and spiritually in American detention, but I found the earlier chapters of the book the most fascinating. Growing up in a fairly wealthy family in Togo, Africa, Fauziya enjoyed a privileged childhood and adolescence. But her description of her life in Togo and the operating principles of her culture (which she loves and still misses) vividly brought home to me just how different the Western mindset is from many tribal-based cultures. Our attitudes toward family, poverty, social injustice, social equality, and religion seem literally worlds apart from the culture in which Fauziya grew up.

This book gave me much food for thought, and was an enlightening and sobering look at just how divergent tribal culture is from Western thought. ( )

Highly likely to make you outraged, this book is also thought-provoking and moving. ( )

This book was a horrific story told beautifully by the author based on her real-life experience. Eye-opening, everyone should read it. ( )

This book made me so mad! I couldn't believe the horrible conditions Fauziya had to go through when she arrived in the US. It embarrassed me to see that my beloved country isn't always so beloved. ( )

I picked the book on impulse never having heard about it before.
But it was a very good read. A lovely portrait about a young afican girl who immigrates to America using fake documents to escape her fate in Africa. The author writes about the difficulties, humilations and the trial she has to go through. And how she imergers a winner.
A rare insight in her life as well as a little into what the organization Amnesty International actually does. ( )