Word: oluloro
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Dates: during 1994-1994
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...appalled that the U.S. Immigration Service sought to deport a Nigerian woman, Lydia Oluloro, to a country where she would not be able to protect her young daughters from a "tradition" requiring part of the children's genitalia to be sliced away ((LAW, March 21)). The U.S. government and the United Nations should mount a worldwide campaign against every form of culturally sanctioned violence involving women and girls, including genital mutilation, forced prostitution and ritual starvation, all of which are practiced by countries that receive huge amounts of aid. At the same time, we must begin to take gender violence...
...Nigerian American with daughters, I find Lydia Oluloro's assertion that deportation to Nigeria would have resulted in the inevitable circumcision of her daughters absolutely ridiculous. In Africa, the individual's wish with regard to matters affecting his or her immediate family is still supreme and is always respected, regardless of cultural and traditional pressures. Oluloro, as the mother and guardian of her children, would still have been the person to make the final decision concerning their welfare...
...ambivalently worded telegram to the presiding judge in Portland, the State Department declared that its latest reports indicate that female circumcision is practiced in more than half of Nigeria; still, it said, while the girls might be cut, "that is not an inevitable consequence." The telegram added that if Oluloro was deported, she did not have to live where mutilation remains the custom...
That does little to clarify the case. Oluloro traveled to Oregon to marry a fellow Nigerian who had a U.S. residency permit. Over the years, she says, she and the children endured beatings by her husband Emmanuel, leading to a divorce last year. Lydia, who works as a janitor and has custody of the girls, lost the right to stay in the country because Emmanuel never completed the paperwork necessary to give her legal-residency status. She says she cannot leave her children to an abusive father -- but how can she take them home to an abusive culture? Emmanuel contests...
...many African immigrants, unlike Oluloro, still cling to the tradition of their homeland. In Seattle internist Carol Horowitz has treated more than 20 Somali refugees, virtually all with the most severe form of mutilation. Yet, she notes, "some of them say they understand that circumcision isn't done here, and they feel sad about it." Adds Horowitz: "If your only message is that this is barbaric, women who have been circumcised will be less likely to seek the medical care they need. They're not doing it to their children to hurt them. They're doing it because they love...