Ghanaian 'lied about circumcision threat'

Female circumcision is common in many parts of Africa

A Ghanaian woman has been indicted in the United States for lying that she was a princess and was threatened with female genital mutilation if she returned home.

In a high-profile case, a woman called herself Adelaide Abankwah used this claim in order to win political asylum in the US in 1997.

Female circumcision

Can be the removal of the tip of the clitoris

Or the removal of the entire clitoris and labia

Or infibulation, which leaves women with only a tiny passage to urinate

6,000 girls circumcised every day

But the US immigration services now says that she was travelling on a false passport and her real name was Regina Norman Danson.

The woman said that she was threatened with genital mutilation as a punishment for losing her virginity before marriage.

Her lawyer has denied that she made up the story in order to be granted permission to stay in the US.

Female genital mutilation, or circumcision, is common in many parts of Africa but under pressure from women's groups both locally and abroad, it has been outlawed in several countries.

First lady

Ms Danson has been charged with eight counts of perjury and one count of passport fraud.

After her initial asylum request was turned down in 1997, her case was taken up by the then first lady, Hilary Clinton and other women's rights campaigners.

Circumcision is often done in unhygienic conditions

After spending two years in detention, in July 1999, a federal appeals court in Manhattan allowed her to stay, saying her fears were "grounded in reality".

If convicted, Ms Danson faces up to 10 years in prison and deportation.

Women's rights campaigners estimate that, globally, at least two million girls are at risk of genital mutilation each year - approximately 6,000 a day.

Circumcisions carried out in unsanitary conditions can lead to septic wounds and serious health problems.

An estimated 130 million girls and women worldwide have already been mutilated - most of them living in Africa.