Book description
Like the bestsellers Princess and Not Without My Daughter, Do They
Hear You When You Cry? tells the dramatic, compulsively readable story
of a woman fighting to free herself from the injustices of her
culture. Fauziya Kassindja's harrowing story begins in Togo, Africa,
where she enjoyed a sheltered childhood, shielded by her progressive
father from the tribal practice of polygamy and genital mutilation.
But when her father died in 1993, Fauziya's life changed dramatically.
At the age of seventeen, she was forced to marry a man she barely knew
who already had three wives, and prepare for the tribal ritual
practice of genital mutilation - a practice that is performed without
painkillers or antibiotics. But hours before the ritual was to take
place, Fauziya's sister helped her escape to Germany, and from there
she travelled to the United States seeking asylum - and freedom.
Instead she was stripped, shackled and imprisoned for sixteen months
by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Enter Layli Miller Bashir, a twenty-three-year-old law student who
took on Fauziya's case. When the two women met, Layli found a broken,
emaciated girl with whom she forged an extraordinary friendship.
Putting her heart into Fauziya's case, Layli enlisted help from the
American University International Human Rights Clinic. The clinic's
acting director Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law, assembled a
team to fight on Fauziya's behalf. Ultimately, in a landmark decision
that has given hope to many seeking asylum on the grounds of
gender-based persecution, Fauziya was granted asylum on 13 June 1996.
Here, for the first time, is Fauziya's dramatic personal story, told
in her own words, vividly detailing her life as a young woman in Togo
and her nightmarish day-to-day existence in American prisons. It is a
story of faith and freedom, courage and inspiration - one that you
will not easily forget.
Biography for Layli Miller Bashir
Fauziya Kassindja was born in 1977 in Kpalime, Togo, the youngest
daughter of a wealthy, prominent family. She now lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Layli Miller Bashir is a recent graduate from the American
University Washington College of Law. She lives in Virginia with her husband.
Gini Kopecki is a freelance writer who lives in New York City.
Biography for Fauziya Kassindja
Fauziya Kassindja was born in 1977 in Kpalime, Togo, the youngest
daughter of a wealthy, prominent family. She now lives in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Layli Miller Bashir is a recent graduate from the American
University Washington College of Law. She lives in Virginia with her husband.
