H.A. v. Secretary Of State For The Home Department

[3] The Immigration Judge did accept that the applicant had been a teacher and might have been told to wear more conservative clothing, including the Hijab. He thought that there was no reason why she could not do that, as a Muslim woman. She did not have pro-Western views and hoped to return to Iraq in due course.

[4] The Immigration Judge addressed the issue of whether the applicant would be at risk because she was in a mixed marriage "since she had married a Moroccan" but he held that the objective evidence did not suggest that there would be a risk from that. He wrote:

"32 ...There is no indication that the applicant had any difficulties because of that and it is clear from the applicant that her husband left Iraq, came to the UK and returned to Iraq. If there was any suggestion that he was at risk, I do not believe that he would have returned".

[5] Notwithstanding the terms of the passage quoted above, the applicant's request for a reconsideration was granted on the basis that the Immigration Judge had failed to take into account that the applicant was a Shia Muslim and her husband was a Sunni Muslim. A reconsideration of the appeal, "limited to this ground", followed in November 2007.

[6] The applicant claimed that, because of the different religious backgrounds of herself and her husband, and the fact that one of the children had a Shi-ite name, the family unit was at real risk of ill treatment if returned to Iraq . The respondent argued that the applicant could resume living in the area where she had been living and where her mother still lived. The children were being brought up according to the Shia faith (para 15). O could use a different name, as he had in the past. Alternatively, she could relocate to predominantly Shi-ite areas of Iraq , such as Basra .