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Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
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Cameroonian Asylee
Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs/ Cameroonian Asylee
Weil Gotshal secured asylum on behalf of a Cameroonian widow who was abused
and persecuted by her late husband’s politically powerful tribal family.
After her husband’s murder at the hands of his family, his family
tried to subject her to widowhood rituals and force her to marry one of
her husband’s brothers. When she refused, she was subjected to rape
and torture and her home was burned down. Weil Gotshal set forth
a novel argument bolstered by a volume of evidence: that widows are
a protected social class in Cameroon and that there was a nexus between
her membership in that class and her torture. The court granted asylum,
agreeing that the Cameroonian government would do nothing to protect the
widow and, given the family’s power, the government might have actually
aided and abetted her persecution.
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