The Development of Gender as a Basis for Asylum in United States Immigration Law and Under the United Nations Refugee Convention

The core of this article is the detailed case discussion of female asylum seekers, particularly from Somalia, but also from Cameroon, Eritrea and Iraq. These female asylum seekers' claims were augmented by their gender in some aspect and their claims were generally accepted.

This article discusses how their legal arguments were raised, the context and the outcome. Within each case discussion, the woman's rights conditions in the respective country are discussed both at the time her case was filed and contemporaneously. Included also is a comparison of women's rights within the United States in similar contexts.