Stopping Long Enough to Celebrate: Recent Win for Violence Survivor and Asylum-Seeker Holds Critical Lessons

The DOJ has granted asylum to Ms. A.B., a Salvadoran woman who fled domestic violence. The victory reaffirms: Violence in a home is not a private matter; marriage is not an excuse for rape; and gender-based violence is reason for urgent action.

I spoke with one of Ms. A.B.’s formidable attorneys, Blaine Bookey, from the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, at U.C. Hastings, which took on the previous administration’s bullish attempts to push intimate partner violence back into the shadows.