• April 29, 2011: 9 News Now, “Victim Advocates Praise Lara Logan For Speaking Out,” by Peggy Fox
• May 12, 2011: TEDx Conference, “Innovate: Justice,” by Layli Miller Muro (video)
• May 18, 2011: The Dailey Caller, “‘The Office’ star Rainn Wilson coming to DC,”
  by Laura Donovan
• May 26, 2011: Washington Examiner, “Wilson, Winger support Tahirih Benefit,” by Katy Adams and Nikki Schwab
• June 10, 2011: TEDxConference, “Layli Miller-Muro – Post-talk Interview,” by Layli Miller-Muro (video)
• June 19, 2011: Washington Examiner, “Accused abusers now being tracked,” by Emily Babay
• July 31, 2011: Interfaith Radio, “Interview with Layli Miller-Muro” (audio)
• August 9, 2011: Dan Rather Reports, “What Happened Next? Forced Marriage” (watch an excerpt or purchase the whole episode on iTunes)
• August 15, 2011: Roll Call, “Miller-Muro: Protections for Victims of Abuse,” by Layli Miller-Muro
• August 19, 2011: Human Rights Brief – American University, “Interview: Layli Miller-Muro [PDF],” by Elizabeth Francis
• August 30, 2011: Huffington Post, “Child Marriage Is ‘A Major Psychological Trauma,’ New Study Says,” by Catherine Pearson
• September 14, 2011: The Daily Beast, “A Night of Extraordinary Women,” by Liz Goodwin

In Your Community

Upcoming Events: Join Tahirih attorneys and staff in these upcoming outreach and training opportunities!

• September 29—Free Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Training, DLA Piper, Houston, TX. For more information, view the invitation (PDF).
• October 18—CLSS Training on Representing Immigrant Victims of Sexual Violence: Safely Discussing Traumatic, George Mason University, Arlington, VA. For more information, visit Tahirih’s webpage. 
• November 10—Asylum Claims Based on Membership in a Particular Social Group, online webinar. For more information, visit the Immigrant Legal Resource Center website. 
• November 16—Working with Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault within Immigrant Communities, Akin Gump, Washington, DC. For more information, visit Tahirih’s webpage. 
• November 17—Immigration Relief for Victims of Domestic Violence and the Kennedy Amendment, Columbia, MD. Open only to members of the Maryland Legal Aid Society.

Since April 15, 2011, Tahirih has conducted outreach or trainings at the following organizations and events:

• Abraham & Watkins, Houston, TX
• Adelante Familia, Baltimore, MD
• Aggies Monthly Breakfast, Revielle Outreach, Houston, TX
• Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Washington, DC
• Arnold and Porter LLP, Washington, DC
• DC Bar Advanced Asylum Law Training, Washington, DC
• Department of Homeland Security, USCIS Ombudsman Office, Houston, TX
• Elon University’s Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic Seminar, Elon, NC
• Fairfax County Dept. of Family Services, Fairfax, VA
• Falls Church Rotary Club, Falls Church, VA
• Florida Coastal Law School, Jacksonville, FL
• Harris County Judicial Education Conference, Houston, TX
• Hogar Immigrant Services, Falls Church, VA
• The Houston Club, Houston, TX
• Houston Volunteer Lawyer’s Program, Houston, TX
• Houston Young Lawyer’s Association, Houston, TX
• Jones Day, Washington, DC
• Kiwanis Club, Falls Church, VA
• Legal Momentum/Vera Institute of Justice, Alexandria, VA
• Milbank Tweed, Washington DC
• National Sexual Assault Conference, Baltimore, MD
• Partners for Justice Conference, Baltimore, MD
• Prince William County Back to School Symposium, Forest Park High School, Woodbridge, VA
• Regional Victim Assistance Training in Portsmouth, VA
• SAFE Inc, Washington, DC
• State Bar of Texas, Immigration Task Force, Houston, TX
• Warrenton Police Department, Warrenton, VA
• Women United for the Advancement of African Countries Conference and Expo, Boston, MA
• The Woodlands, Houston, TX

This past spring, Layli Miller-Muro had the opportunity to speak about Tahirih’s work on two public platforms which reached wide audiences.

In May, TEDx Grand Rapids recognized Layli as an innovator of justice and invited her to speak at their invitation-only event. Layli joined leading thinkers and doers for an inspiring day of thought-provoking presentations, performances, and conversations. TED is a widely known nonprofit dedicated to Ideas Worth Sharing. The event was attended by over 600 individuals and is now available online. If you have not yet had the chance to view Layli’s inspiring speech, we encourage you to watch it below and share with your friends!

More recently, Layli had the opportunity to highlight the Tahirih Justice Center’s national leadership role in a critical emerging issue—the forced marriage of young women from immigrant communities in the Unites States. Among other activities, we recently distributed a national survey (prepared in consultation with sociologists from the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center) to better understand the scope and nature of the problem, to identify key stakeholders, and develop a collaborative national support network for those facing forced marriage. We also hope to foster respectful conversations—both nationally and at the community level—that reflect the complexity and sensitivity of the issue. The topic is generating a great deal of interest and caught the attention of Dan Rather. In August, Dan Rather Reports interviewed Layli for a report on “honor” violence in the United States. Watch an excerpt from the show below, then purchase the whole episode on iTunes (Season 6, Episode 25).

For other appearances of Tahirih in the news, check out the In the News section of this newsletter.

Khalida married her husband Asad in Pakistan through an arrangement made by their families. (Their names are changed here to protect Khalida.) She finished medical school and began her residency a month after she was married. Her husband was immediately abusive and jealous: He restricted Khalida’s movement and forced her to be accompanied wherever she went, including to work. When she had to stay at the hospital for 24–hour emergency duty, her husband accused her of staying out just to attract men and to dishonor the family. He raped her repeatedly, and when she miscarried her first pregnancy, he slapped her and blamed her work at the hospital. Khalida eventually quit her job, but even after the birth of her two children the brutal abuse continued, along with blame for bearing daughters instead of sons. After trying for years to escape, she finally made it with her children to the United States with the help of brothers who were already here. To this day, Asad and his family do not accept that the marriage is over and threaten to harm Khalida if she ever returns to Pakistan.

The Tahirih Justice Center recently opened its doors in Houston to help women like Khalida, the very few who are fortunate enough to escape violence and have the means to make it to safety in the United States. While Tahirih provides some of the services that help Khalida and others like her build safe futures for themselves and their children, many of her sisters around the world remain trapped in desperate situations. Solutions for them have to be found closer to home.

One out of every three women worldwide is physically, sexually or otherwise abused during her lifetime, and in some countries that rate is as high as 70 percent. The nature and scale of the violence women suffer is horrifying: from pervasive domestic violence to rape (including as a tool of war), to widespread sex trafficking and girls being forced to trade sex for food. Violence devastates the lives of millions of women and girls and knows no national or cultural barriers. Violence also keeps women poor. Women are the majority of those living on $1 a day or less worldwide, and the cruel cycle continues: Violence prevents them from getting an education or working, and their poverty keeps them dependent, preventing them from leaving abusive situations.

Now the good news: We can and must stop this violence, and there are thousands of local organizations like Tahirih around the world that are doing just that. They are running shelters, offering help and support, training and educating women so that they can be self-sufficient, fighting to change cultural attitudes that treat violence as normal, and pushing for legal reform so women’s basic rights will be taken seriously by local courts. Every country and culture is different, and these organizations know best how to serve women in their communities.

There are promising signs that our country is beginning to support these worthy local initiatives. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been a forceful advocate for women worldwide, raising the profile of this issue everywhere, from her visit last year with women raped during the conflict in the Congo to her remarks pointing out gender inequality in Yemen at the Davos Economic Forum in January.

And at a time of seeming partisan dysfunction in Washington, a groundbreaking, bipartisan International Violence Against Women Act, or I-VAWA, was introduced in both the Senate and the House in early February. The bill comprehensively addresses, for the first time, violence against women and girls through all relevant U.S. foreign policy efforts, including its international assistance programs. U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, is the lead Republican sponsor in the House, working across the aisle with Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and many others.

Support from the American public is also strong. A 2009 poll found that 61 percent of voters across demographic and political lines thought global violence against women should be one of the top international priorities for the U.S. government, and after learning more about it, 82 percent supported the I-VAWA. The I-VAWA would support wide-ranging local efforts to end violence against women and girls in up to 20 countries. It would make ending violence against women a diplomatic priority for the first time in U.S. history and would ask the U.S. government to respond to outbreaks of gender-based violence in conflict situations within six months.

If passed, it could truly be a life-changing force for millions of women like Khalida in countries around the world, helping them get a second chance for themselves and ensuring a better future for their children.

Chandler is Houston director for the Tahirih Justice Center, which provides free legal services to immigrant women and girls fleeing violence; Sharma, a leading advocate for the passage of I-VAWA, is co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide in Washington, D.C., which pushes for U.S. policies that support women living in poverty around the world.

This op-ed appeared on April 17, 2010, in the Houston Chronicle.

By Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Washington Post draws attention to the challenges faced by women seeking asylum in the United States based on gender-related persecution. The article comes the day after Tahirih hosted a Congressional Briefing to present a new report on women and girls in the US asylum system. The Post highlights the struggles of Tahirih’s clients caught in the system, such as a 23-year-old Honduran woman. She was the victim of severe domestic violence by the man she was living with, a Honduran police officer, but despite her many complaints to law enforcement, she never received protection. She then fled to the United States after the man threatened to kill her but was denied asylum due to the unsettled law concerning women fleeing domestic violence. Read the full article >

It is a great honor and recognition of the impact of our work to be chosen from over 8,000 local nonprofits. The selection was made through consultation with local philanthropy experts and preference was given to groups that “do a good job managing both volunteers and donations.”

The Washington Post, November 3, 2008, by Pamela Constable
This powerful article highlights the plight of several Tahirih clients who have suffered female genital mutilation and whose lives continue to be affected by the violence they have suffered. Interviews with Tahirih clients, as well as quotes from Layli Miller-Muro, Tahirih’s Executive Director, are included. In addition, the article discusses how recent court decisions threaten to challenge legal protections available to women and girls fleeing female genital mutilation. Read full Washington Post article >