Mohamed Aly, born and raised in Egypt, lives in Canada. Amal Aden, born and raised in Somalia, lived in Minnesota until she and Aly met on a Muslim dating site and she moved to Canada. They married, and have a daughter, born in 2011. But Aden left Aly, taking the daughter back with her to Minnesota. Aly then petitioned under the Hague Convention (a treaty) and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, “alleging that Aden wrongfully removed their child to the United States. Aly contends that the child is a habitual resident of Canada within the meaning of the Convention, and accordingly seeks an order from the Court directing the prompt return of the child to that country. Aden opposes the petition, alleging that Aly has not met the requirements under the Convention and raising affirmative defenses to the return of the child — including that there is a grave risk of harm should the child be returned to Canada.”
The court (Aly v. Aden (D. Minn. Feb. 14, 2013)) went through a lot of details, including the various factual allegations and cross-allegations, and I can’t do all those details justice here. Here, though, is an interesting discussion of the mother’s (Aden’s) argument that returning the daughter to the father would put the daughter at risk for female genital mutilation (some paragraph breaks added):
[...]58. Aden alleges that Aly approves of the practice of female genital mutilation (“FGM”). Aden also alleges that Aly asked Aden to take [daughter] to Aden’s mother, who lives in Kenya, to have the child undergo FGM. Aden testified that Aly then stated that if Aden’s mother would not do the procedure, Aly would take [daughter] to his mother in Egypt to have the procedure done.
59. Aly denies that he approves of FGM