时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(七)月


英语课

Forced marriage, honor killing 1 and female genital mutilation are just a few of the human rights abuses directed against women solely 2 because of their gender 3.


 


In the United States, a number of organizations are trying to help women who are trying to flee their country to escape this gender-based persecution 4, using the judicial 5 system to help them get asylum 6.


Now, legislation recently introduced in the U.S. Congress aims to strengthen current asylum laws for immigrant women, which will be of tremendous assistance to these groups.


 


Protection against Gender-Based Violence


One of the organizations that will benefit from passage of these new laws is the Tahirih Justice Center, a privately-funded organization that has assisted more than 10,000 women and girls since its inception 7 in 1997.


Layli Miller-Muro, the group's founder 8 and executive director, says gender-based violence is not unique to any religion, culture or society. It's prevalent throughout the world, she says, including the United States.


"Unfortunately, it is quite an epidemic 9 and there is no shortage of creative forms of violence against women or women and girls needing help."


One form of violence Miller-Muro's center deals with on a regular basis is "female genital mutilation" - or FGM. 


 


Layli Miller-Muno's Tahirih Justice Center has assisted 10,000 women and girls facing gender-based violence.




It is also known as "female genital cutting" or "female circumcision."


Yaye's story


Yaye, a 36-year-old woman from a West African country she prefers not to identify, is one of the center's clients. She was subjected to  FGM as a baby.


While she doesn't remember the details of her own mutilation, Yaye was present during numerous circumcision ceremonies when other girls in her village were forced to undergo the procedure.


She says that, during a circumcision ceremony, all the village girls - everyone from newborns to adult women - are

rounded up into a big room and subjected to cutting, one at a time.


"There is a mat on the floor and somebody [will] sit behind you and hold your head, then the other will hold your legs, two people hold your hands and the lady will cut you," says Yaye.


The procedure is normally performed by a midwife, or the village matriarch, who uses no anesthetic 10 and typically uses a razor blade to cut part - or all - of the female genitalia.


Once all the girls are forcefully cut, says Yaye, they are placed in a room  with a piece of cloth between their legs, where they will remain for several days.


"Every day they will come and check you: take you to the bathroom because you can't even walk. It will take weeks before you start walking," she says.


 


'Yaye' successfully sought asylum in the US after arguing that her three young daughters faced female circumcision if they returned to her African homeland.




Getting help in the U.S.


Yaye left her country about 10 years ago when a forced marriage brought her to the United States.


She endured an abusive relationship during which time she gave birth to three girls. Soon after giving birth, Yaye says she started receiving letters from her relatives in Africa, urging her to bring her girls home so that they could be cut.


Yaye told her relatives that "there's no way" she was going to send back her kids.


"I believe a mother is supposed to protect their child. That's what I believe and I will do anything to protect my kids.

There's no way I will let my kids go through whatever I go through," she says.


FGM is an excruciatingly painful procedure. One third of all girls subjected to the ritual suffer major, lifelong medical complications, according to a recent study out of Kenya. Many others die from blood loss immediately following the cutting.


According to Yaye, death from FGM procedures are not taken seriously in her village.


"When they get you and cut you, you might bleed to death. It's not a big deal to them. It's just an accident."


Pressure from fellow villagers to comply with this deeply-embedded tradition is enormous. If mothers try to protect their daughters from being cut, women from the village - including family members - will kidnap their daughters and force them to undergo the procedure.


"There is no way you can hide where I come from," says Yaye, "because it's [a] very small country and even when you run away, they will get you."


A way out


Now divorced and facing possible deportation 11, Yaye was not sure who to turn to for help, until a friend told her about the Tahirih Justice Center.


Once she contacted them, the center took Yaye's case, assigning her an attorney and seeking asylum for her. They won their case, based on the argument that if she were to go back to her country, she would face violence for trying to protect her daughters. And if she took her daughters with her, they would be subjected to genital mutilation, despite her wishes.


The Tahirih Center's Layli Miller-Muro says Yaye's experience is just one manifestation 12 of a much larger problem facing women around the world.


"What we see in her case - which is very common among our clients - is that the fundamental issue they suffer is the lack of respect of women and the fundamental inequality of women and men," she says.


New laws for immigrant women


Legislation now pending 13 in the U.S. Congress would strengthen current asylum laws for immigrant women like Yaye and her family who are fleeing gender-based persecution.


Miller-Muro says if the law passes, it will be a tremendous help to the work of her center and others like it.


"It would clarify that a wider range of types of violence against women are a viable 14 basis for protection. It would help

in the complicated legal analysis that we have to do right now in order to prove that protection," she says. "Also it would get rid of a very onerous 15 burden for asylum seekers in the United States which is that they must file for protection under our laws within one year of arriving in the country."


In the meantime, despite everything she has been through, Yaye is glad to have spoken up, and urges other women

facing similar challenges, to also seek help.


"Anybody's who's out there, get up and stand for yourself and fight really hard. If you have kids, fight for them; they need you," she says.


After years of struggle, Yaye says she finally feels safe. And her daughters - now eight, six and four years of age - are happy and adapting well to life in the United States.


 



1 killing
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
2 solely
adv.仅仅,唯一地
  • Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
  • The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。
3 gender
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
4 persecution
n. 迫害,烦扰
  • He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
  • Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。
5 judicial
adj.司法的,法庭的,审判的,明断的,公正的
  • He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
  • Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。
6 asylum
n.避难所,庇护所,避难
  • The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
  • Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。
7 inception
n.开端,开始,取得学位
  • The programme has been successful since its inception.这个方案自开始实施以来一直卓有成效。
  • Julia's worked for that company from its inception.自从那家公司开办以来,朱莉娅一直在那儿工作。
8 Founder
n.创始者,缔造者
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
9 epidemic
n.流行病;盛行;adj.流行性的,流传极广的
  • That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
  • The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。
10 anesthetic
n.麻醉剂,麻药;adj.麻醉的,失去知觉的
  • He was given a general anesthetic.他被全身麻醉。
  • He was still under the influence of the anesthetic.他仍处在麻醉状态。
11 deportation
n.驱逐,放逐
  • The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
  • Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前,英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。
12 manifestation
n.表现形式;表明;现象
  • Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
  • What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。
13 pending
prep.直到,等待…期间;adj.待定的;迫近的
  • The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
  • He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。
14 viable
adj.可行的,切实可行的,能活下去的
  • The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
  • The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。
15 onerous
adj.繁重的
  • My household duties were not particularly onerous.我的家务活并不繁重。
  • This obligation sometimes proves onerous.这一义务有时被证明是艰巨的。
学英语单词
across the pond
acrostichal hairs
after-reducing bath
air speed data
alavostra salute
Alegyun
amphisexuality
animal anomalogy
aortic and mitral valve replacement
arbitration in disputes between labor and capital
armenian hamster
Ascomycetae
auxiliary (airway) beacon
Azusa-gawa
base-stations
bill advice
Britishers
Buchholtz protector
casualty-list
chafed
class-a amplifier
CMOS transistor
coal conversion technology
color-coordinated
common pochard
computerized switching
concentration
constant-pressure change
cornishmen
dump pipe
equal-percentage valve
equivalent altitude
everglades kite
flavour potentiator
garlic spread
georg simon ohms
guos
hexafluoroacetone
hollow cathode discharge deposition
homings
homocentric pencil of rays
huongs
Hydrocleis
i-schorn
IBUSTRIN
imaged aperture angle
inner plate
input pull-down
ion-exchange unit
irreflexive verb
kasavin
Kasungeshi
leukecythemia
light archive
loro account
Masaoka Shiki
mastoscirrhus
maximum quantity acceptable
micrometer constant
molecular statement
monoalphabetic cipher
motation
no-fall
Novadelox
oil-extractor
onychoma
optical analogue computer
outside the planned market
parcham
Pavones
pediatric cardiology
poll list
potassium triiodozincate
Project Blue Book
relaunder
required net positive suction head
retarder operator
rhymesters'
rigglesfords
Rigiscan
Salmonella enteritidis var. chaco
San Giovanni in Fiore
semi-finite
shortcrust (pastry)
shuttle tip
space manager client
spiral-knife cutterhead
sprinkler coefficient
standing machine
storably
sultam
surfacing feed
system pair
the still small voice
thoracic disk
TLCF
tropical rainforest
uninventing
vertical bar (branchial backet)
vibrometry
vitelligenes
Yedogon