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Incheon
Zenith Foreign
the 8th Language
High School

A reason she came to Korea :

The wicked having done to women

Last December 5th, The Supreme Court ruled that peo-
ple who came to Korea to avoid Female Genital Muti-
lation(FGM) can be admitted as a refugee. According
to Bo-young Park, a justice of the Supreme Court, FGM
is a deed that removes part or whole female genitalia
not for medical purposes but for traditional reason. She
said that it damages women’s bodies with extreme pain

and also the dignity of women. It was the first moment
to accept ‘FGM’ as a factor for accepting refugees.
Donjo Makishi Matouma, a Liberian woman, received
a death threat for her refusal to join a group which bludgeoned her into doing FGM. She escaped and
gave birth to a daughter in a Ghana refugee camp. Though She applied to the Korean Government to
be accepted as a refugee, at least her daughter, she was refused and took legal action.
However, the Immigration Office didn’t accept her for the reason that there is no risk of persecution. And

also, the first and second trial has handed down same decision that there is possiblity that they could
be protected from their government because Liberia is trying to abolish the vice and they can move to a
different region where no FGM exists. She didn’t give up and appealed to the Supreme Court.
Finally, the Supreme Court ruled for her due to the possibility of FGM if they go back to their country.
They declared that the original trial didn’t check the current state of Liberia and efforts to eliminate FGM.

Lee, Ji-hyeon (2-10)
iou0409@nate.com

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