Spotlight On

Mission:
The Tahirih Justice Center is a Washington, DC area-based non-profit organization that enables women and girls fleeing gender-based violence to access justice.

Tahirih protects immigrant women and girls by:

• Providing pro bono holistic legal services;
• Engaging in bridge-building public policy advocacy; and
• Training and educating the public on challenges faced by immigrant women and girls fleeing violence.

Background:
Layli Miller-Muro founded the Tahirih Justice Center in 1997, following her involvement as a student attorney in a high-profile case that set national precedent and revolutionized asylum law in the United States. The case was that of Fauziya Kassindja, a 17-year-old girl who fled Togo in fear of a forced polygamous marriage and a tribal practice known as female genital cutting. After arriving in the United States and spending more than 17 months in detention, Ms. Kassindja was granted asylum in 1996 by the US Board of Immigration Appeals in a decision that opened the door to gender-based persecution as a grounds for asylum. Using her portion of the proceeds from a book she and Ms. Kassindja co-authored about the case (Do They Hear You When You Cry? Delacorte Press, 1998), Ms. Miller-Muro established Tahirih to provide legal advocacy for women and girls, like Ms. Kassindja, who seek protection from gender-based persecution.

Current Programs:
Tahirih's direct legal services, provided both in-house and by an extensive network of over 340 outside pro bono attorneys, embrace a holistic approach, offering a range of social and medical service referrals. Specifically, our holistic legal services programs include:

• Gender-Based Asylum: Tahirih provides pro bono legal representation in immigration and federal courts to women and girls fleeing gender-based violence in their home countries such as female genital cutting, torture, rape, human trafficking, honor crimes, widow rituals, forced marriage, and domestic violence.
• Battered Immigrant Women Project: Tahirih provides pro bono legal representation to immigrant women survivors of domestic violence seeking to access their right to independent legal status under the Violence Against Women Act so that they are not forced to choose between deportation and remaining in the abusive relationship upon which their legal status depends.
• Protection for Victims of Trafficking and Other Crimes: Pioneering the use of the newly created T and U visas established under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, Tahirih provides pro bono legal representation for immigrant women and girls who have been trafficked to the United States or are victims of other violent crimes and who are willing to cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the crime.
• Family Law Services: Tahirih provides pro bono family law representation to clients who have urgent family law matters such as orders of protection, child custody, and separation or divorce.

• Campaign to End Exploitation by International Marriage Brokers: In recent years, the international marriage broker (IMB) industry exploded in response to a demand by some American men for "traditional" wives. The business model and marketing practices of many of these agencies are attracting predators, and a growing number of women are paired with abusive men. The Campaign has successfully advocated for the accountability of these agencies through the passage of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, signed by President Bush in 2006, and through the successful litigation of the first lawsuit against an IMB for its role in enabling the abuse of a Ukrainian woman.
• Initiative to Ensure Police Protection for Immigrant Crime Victims: In response to legislative efforts to compel state and local police to enforce federal immigration law, Tahirih works on a national, regional, and local level to advocate on behalf of immigrant women survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking to ensure their ability to obtain police protection without fear of being deported or placed in detention.

In addition to general operating support, Tahirih would greatly benefit from:

• Funding to map out, test, and replicate a model for national expansion of our current programs;
• Funding to expand our public policy advocacy; and
• Funding to invest and strengthen organizational leadership.

The "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Metropolitan Washington, DC community. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to dclibrary@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.