When Anne Chandler travels around Houston, she doesn’t see the same city you and I see.

“It’s so nice that those of us that have gone through such difficult times have a chance to get together and celebrate something,” a client in Houston said.

We were in the courtroom and I caught my client’s eyes. They filled with tears, and then she looked forward toward the judge and jury. She was a very small Ukrainian woman and very scared.

For women and girls like Tahirih’s clients, it is not enough to have just any attorney. Their unique gender-based violence cases require attorneys who are well-versed in both sensitive cultural issues and the extremely complicated and often unexplored territory of gender-based immigration law.

Community members across the city of Houston have stepped up to provide Tahirih clients with vital legal and medical care at free or reduced costs.

The court decision reflects a critical course-correction from earlier decisions by both the judge and the nation’s highest immigration court that held asylum claims by women who have suffered FGM to a higher legal standard than claims by other asylum applicants.

It didn’t take Sandra long to learn that her new husband had lied about his status as a citizen in the United States. But it was too late for her to save herself from an abusive marriage.