Kissindja Relativism

Jack Donnelly would grant Fauziya Kissindja political asylum in the United States based on the definition of a refugee. A refugee is “any person who has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of particular social and political group...unable or, owing to such fear is unwilling to return to it” (Fullerton, 2006, p. 138). Donnelly’s reasoning would revolve around Kissindja’s well-founded fear of persecution by a social group, not on the sole basis of female genital mutilation. He wouldn’t agree on adding a provision in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that bans female genital mutilation due to cultural relativism. In Do They Hear You When We Cry we learn that Kissindja arrived in the United States at the age of 17. After her father’s death, Kissindja’s mother would be kicked out of her home by her aunt and uncle. Her aunt would prevent Kissindja from continuing her education. She also wanted Kissindja to get married to an older man. Before this marriage, she would expect Kissindja to go through …show more content…
He states, “arguments claiming particular conception and implementation is, for cultural or historical reasons, deeply imbedded in within or of unusually great significance to some significant group in society deserve, on their face, sympathetic consideration” (Donnelly, 2007, p. 301). Female genital mutilation for many tribal groups in Africa is considered to have great significance. Many generations have practiced this tradition and there is strong belief on why females should go through female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is seen as keeping the women pure for her husband. She is also less likely to have sexual urges so that they are pure for their husbands. Female genital mutilation is a deviation from international human rights and it should be permitted according to