Cameroon-USA - Woman's Testimonial from Victim to Immigrant to Survivor

Cameroon - Joelle's Story

My name is Joelle.* I am a native of Cameroon. I fled my country because the local chief wanted to marry me and separate me from my family. I was already married to a man I loved and, at the time, expecting my first child. The chief was old and already had many wives and children in his compound. The chief’s notables beat my husband, threatened him, and chased him out of my village. The chief then raped me, saying that I had consented, and chastised me in front of the village so he could shame me and turn our neighbors against me.

During this time, I was arrested several times for refusing to marry the chief. In jail, I was forced to remove all my clothes and was thrown in a dark cell where I had to lie on a dirty floor covered in urine and feces. I was beaten and sexually molested by the guards. The bottoms of my feet were so bruised after one beating that I could not wear shoes for a long time afterward.

Upon my last release from prison, my family sent me to my uncle’s house in the city to escape the forced marriage and hide. For this act of disobedience, my mother and my brothers were banned from the village. They lost all their possessions and are not allowed to return, not even to be buried next to our ancestors. Knowing I would never be safe in Cameroon, with my uncle’s help, I came to the United States.

I knew no one in the United States and had nowhere to live when I arrived. I lived for a short time with a woman who suddenly told me she could no longer help me and I needed to leave her house that day. I had a small child and had nowhere to go. So I sat on a bench at a shopping mall and began crying. An African man approached me and invited me to live with his family. After a while, I became uncomfortable with my living situation and needed to move again. I was referred to the Tahirih Justice Center by a therapist and they helped me find a wonderful family to live with. Tahirih helped me get asylum, helped get me into a job training program and served as a reference when I was job hunting, helped me with my daughter’s birth certificate, and finally helped bring my husband to the United States.

I now work for the Fairfax County, Virginia,government providing family services to vulnerable populations. My goal is to help my clients become self-sufficient as well as to educate individuals and families in need about available resources and opportunities. I plan to go back to school to study social work so I can better advocate for those in need. It is hard to believe that not too long ago I was myself homeless, alone in a new country, and in desperate need of help.

Joelle’s application for asylum based on forced marriage was approved in March 2004. Finally, after years of hardship, she and her husband are reunited and are now raising a family in Virginia. Joelle has become a passionate ambassador of Tahirih’s mission to protect women and girls who, like her, are fleeing human rights abuses.

FACTS FROM CAMEROON

Despite the law that fixes a minimum age of 15 years for a bride, many families facilitate the marriage of young girls by the age of 12 years. Often the husband, who could be many years older than his bride, pay his wife's parents a "bride price." Since a price had been paid, the girl is considered the property of the husband. (US Department of State 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices)
According to a BBC News report, marriage rates for 15-19 year-old girls in Cameroon were 41 percent, the fifth highest rate of 22 African countries surveyed. (Monekosso, Ticky. BBC News. "Africa's Forced Marriages" (8 Mar 2001))


The Tahirih Justice Center was founded in 1997 to address the acute need for legal services of immigrant and refugee women who have fled to the U.S. to seek protection from human rights abuses.