RS & Anor v The International Protection Appeals Tribunal & Anor (Approved)

2.������ The First Applicant claimed that her mother held a leadership role in the Bondo Womens� Society.� Female genital mutilation (hereinafter referred to as �FGM�) is promoted and practised by this Society.� The First Applicant has not been subjected to this mutilation.� She claimed that her mother had carried out this act on her older sister when she was a young child and that she had died as a result.� Whilst her mother also wanted the Applicant to undergo this procedure, she did not impose her will upon her when she was a child because of the death of her other daughter.

3.������ The First Applicant married in 2013 and now has two children, one of whom is the Second Applicant.� She opposes FGM, as does her husband.�

4.������ The First Applicant�s mother died in 2016.� The First Applicant returned to her village to attend the traditional 40th day memorial service in respect of her mother.� In her affidavit grounding these proceedings she avers that �following the death of my mother, tradition required the daughter to assume the mother�s role in the society.�� The First Applicant further avers that having returned to her village for the memorial service she �was informed of her duty to both assume my mother�s role and undergo FGM.�

5.������ However, her application for international protection records a slightly different version of events which is of significance in terms of an argument aired before the Court.�

7.������ The First Applicant�s narrative continues that she expressed her vehement opposition to this suggestion.� Thereupon, the First Applicant was held against her will by these women in a remote location where it was intended that FGM would be carried out on her.� However, she managed to escape with the assistance of her husband.�