Asylum from Arranged Marriages?

[I know from discussions with some of my students who have migrated to this country as refugees from repressive regimes -- who have become thoroughly Americanized -- that one of their deep fears is that they will be sent back to their countries of origin where they face this threat. The upshot of an arranged marriage can be that a young women becomes the unpaid servant of her husband's family -- grim for an intelligent college grad who barely speaks the language of a country of origin, let alone accepts it traditional cultural bounds. I will never forget an educated Egyptian professional woman at a human rights conference observing that such wives could be discarded simply by a husband pronouncing, "I divorce you" three times. One of the males from that country (Egypt) burst in smirkingly with "Two times will do it."
Ed Kent]

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Does the prospect of arranged marriage and abuse warrant asylum in the US? An immigration judge said no, but an appeals court panel found a valid fear of persecution. By Warren Richey
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0323/p01s02-usju.html?s=hns
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