Opinion ID: 680023
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Board Erred in Failing to Consider whether Fisher

Text: 19 Might Suffer Harm that Rises to the Level of Persecution for Future Noncompliance 20 with the Moral Codes
21 We find the Board's reasoning deficient in one fundamental respect. Although the Board purported to determine whether Fisher had a well-founded fear of future persecution, it considered only the treatment Fisher actually received for violating the regime's ultraconservative rules and not the punishment that Fisher might receive for future transgressions. It long has been recognized, however, that past persecution and future persecution provide distinct avenues for obtaining eligibility for asylum. See, e.g., Acewicz, 984 F.2d at 1061-62; Berroteran-Melendez v. INS, 955 F.2d 1251, 1255 n. 3 (9th Cir.1992) (citing Desir v. Ilchert, 840 F.2d 723, 729 (9th Cir.1988)); see also 8 C.F.R. Sec. 208.13 (1993) (The applicant may qualify as a refugee either because he has suffered actual past persecution or because he has a well-founded fear of future persecution. (emphasis added)). 4 22 Although Fisher maintained that the incidents she experienced in the past themselves amounted to persecution, the essence of her claim was that she would suffer persecution if forced to return to Iran. A proper evaluation of Fisher's claim of future persecution, consequently, should have included an assessment of the punishment that might be inflicted upon her for violating the ultraconservative laws should she return to Iran, and not merely her past experiences. See Bastanipour v. INS, 980 F.2d 1129, 1132-33 (7th Cir.1992) (holding that the BIA erred by considering only the Iranian regime's formal definition of, and prescribed punishments for, apostasy, as opposed to how the Iranian officials in reality might treat the petitioner if he were to return to Iran); Rivas-Martinez v. INS, 997 F.2d 1143, 1146-48 (5th Cir.1993) (holding that the BIA erred in failing to consider the possibility that a guerrilla group might learn of the petitioner's political beliefs despite their failure to learn of her beliefs up to that point). Accordingly, assuming arguendo that the Board determined correctly that Fisher was not eligible for asylum based upon past persecution, we hold that it erred by making its assessment of Fisher's past experiences conclusive as to the harm she might face upon return to Iran for further transgressions of the ultraconservative laws. 23 The Board's analytic error is particularly disturbing in light of significant evidence that severe sanctions can result from noncompliance with the Iranian ultraconservative laws, which we term the moral codes, see generally Nader Entessar, Criminal Law and the Legal System in Revolutionary Iran, 8 Boston College Third World L.J. 91, 98 (1988) (describing the imposition of punishment for immoral behavior or immodest clothing as codified aspects of the general category of offenses known as the Ta'zir--offenses for which no specific penalties are mentioned in the Quran but which are imposed in the public interest). 5 24 The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that were available at the time of Fisher's asylum hearing indicate that, with respect to the enforcement of the moral codes, Fisher might well have been one of the[ ] lucky ones. Bastanipour, 980 F.2d at 1133. The meting out of more severe punishment appears to have been a distinct possibility: 25 Always the object of discriminatory practices in Iran's conservative society, women have faced even more discrimination since the Revolution. Ultraconservative dress, entirely hiding the hair and all of the body except the face and hands, is now a requirement for all women, regardless of their religion, national origin, citizenship, or diplomatic status. Women have been harassed, detained, or physically attacked if they appear in public in clothing which official or self-appointed guardians of public morality deemed insufficiently modest. 26 State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1987, at 1168 (1988) [hereinafter 1987 Country Reports]. 27 Subsequent reports indicate that the regime has engaged in periodic crackdowns on violations of the moral codes, see, e.g., State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1990, at 1454, 1457 (1991) [hereinafter 1990 Country Reports]; Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992, at 1001 (1993) [hereinafter 1992 Country Reports], and the nature and intensity of the regime's enforcement efforts appears to have varied according to which political faction has the upper hand, compare Iran Lightens up on Western Ways, Chicago Trib., May 3, 1993, at 3 (reporting that the regime had abandoned intensive enforcement efforts in favor of levying fines) with Iran Cracks Down on Dress Code, Chicago Trib., July 11, 1993, at 11 (reporting the initiation of new enforcement efforts that might result in incarceration). Indeed, one recent report stated that [i]n Iran, order is ... kept by 3 million armed young people, called Bassijis, who roam the streets looking for women who are not wearing the traditional headgear and robes that Muslim women are required to wear. Baha'is Calm in Centre of Storm, Toronto Star, Jan. 22, 1994, at L15. 28 It is not only that the moral codes are enforced but also how they are enforced that demonstrates potential for persecution. Incarceration is not the only penalty that a woman who fails to comply with the practice of veiling, known as hejab, might face. As reported by one commentator: 29 A women resisting hejab or related mandates must be punished. Finding justification in the Quran, Komeini and [the] various groups that support him have sporadically subjected women to grave punishment for even the most minor infractions whenever public morals have been involved. For example, ... women who refuse to wear the veil suffer severe penalties--the least of which is seventy-four lashes, administered immediately and without formal review. 30 David L. Neal, Women as a Social Group: Recognizing Sex-Based Persecution as Grounds for Asylum, 20 Colum.Human Rights L.Rev. 203, 219-20 (1988) (student author); see also Slowly Fighting Back, Toronto Star, June 2, 1992, at B5 (reporting that women might receive [u]p to 70 lashes on the back, shoulders or legs, a hefty fine, a prison term, or a combination of all three for violating the moral codes); Valcourt to Review Woman's Expulsion, Toronto Star, Oct. 22, 1991, at A20 (reporting on an asylum claim made in Canada by a woman who was whipped on the back and buttocks with a wire cable by revolutionary guards for not wearing the veil required by Islamic law). Furthermore, failure to comply with the moral codes can result in charges of prostitution, which might result in imprisonment accompanied by physical and sexual abuse. See Neal, supra, at 220-21; cf. Hartooni v. INS, 21 F.3d 336, 341 (9th Cir.1994) (reporting an incident in which a group of girls were  'taken away' for a few days by Iran soldiers because their hair was improperly bound). Executions for these crimes against morality also have been reported. See Neal, supra, at 222 & n. 96 (citing 1987 Country Reports, supra, at 1158). 31 The threats to life or liberty described in these reports clearly can rise to the level of persecution. See, e.g., Desir v. Ilchert, 840 F.2d 723, 726-27 (9th Cir.1988). Consequently, we believe that the BIA, on remand, should closely consider evidence of current enforcement practices in Iran in evaluating Fisher's claim. See Bastanipour, 980 F.2d at 1132-33; cf. Castillo-Villagra v. INS, 972 F.2d 1017, 1030 (9th Cir.1992) (taking judicial notice of State Department reports for the limited purposes of determining whether an evidentiary hearing was warranted). 6 As the administrative record, which dates from the late 1980s, obviously contains no materials that bear on conditions in Iran in 1994, the Board should take further evidence on the question of what sanctions Fisher might face for future noncompliance with the moral codes. See, e.g., Castaneda-Hernandez v. INS, 826 F.2d 1526, 1531 (6th Cir.1987) (concluding that the Board should supplement the record in order to evaluate how present conditions in El Salvador affect petitioner's claim); Bastanipour, 980 F.2d at 1133.
32 We also believe that the Board's analysis was flawed in a second respect. In concluding that Fisher's experiences with the enforcement of the moral codes did not rise to the level of persecution within the meaning of the INA, the Board implied that persecution must be evaluated solely on the basis of the physical sanction (for instance, prolonged imprisonment, lashes with a whip, or other direct forms of torture) imposed by the Iranian regime. We conclude, however, that persecution cannot be defined so narrowly. 33
34 It is important to understand the nature of Fisher's claim insofar as it is premised on religious persecution. It is apparent from the hearing transcript that Fisher claims to be a Moslem who possesses religious beliefs contrary to those espoused by the Iranian regime, and that the Iranian regime's enforcement of the moral codes is one point of disagreement. Fisher testified that [t]he way [the regime] look[s] at Islam is just superficial[ ] and that she is totally against it. Admin.Rec. at 102. Moreover, she explained that: 35 My opinions are different than the ones that the regime is holding right now. For example ... I am Moslem and so do they claim to be, but I don't believe they are. I don't believe in the way they treat people, the covering of the face, the way of life. 36 Id. at 89. 37 Fisher also maintained that the illness she suffered was related directly to the terrifying horror of living under the Khomeini regime, see id. at 94-95, 117, and contended in her brief to the BIA that the enforcement of the moral codes amounted to religious persecution because she possess[es] beliefs which the government of Iran was attempting to eradicate through violence. Id. at 18-19. Fisher does not maintain that her voluntary compliance with the moral codes would amount to persecution. Cf. Fatin v. INS, 12 F.3d 1233, 1241-43 (3d Cir.1993) (considering a claim of persecution based upon membership in the particular social group of Iranian women who find their country's gender-specific laws offensive and do not wish to comply with them). Rather, she contends that the moral codes are persecutory because they represent a conception of Islam that she finds abhorrent and because the regime is attempting to suppress her beliefs through sanctioning her for noncompliance with the moral codes. 38
39 Our precedents, as well as the Board's, strongly support requiring the BIA to consider these allegations in determining whether the harm suffered by Fisher could rise to the level of persecution even if the physical sanction imposed by the Iranian regime does not, by itself, rise to a threat to life or liberty as described above. The Supreme Court has observed that persecution is seemingly a broader concept than threats to 'life or freedom.'  INS v. Stevic, 467 U.S. 407, 428, 104 S.Ct. 2489, 2500, 81 L.Ed.2d 321 (1984). In this circuit, we have defined persecution to include  'suffering or harm upon those who differ ... in a way regarded as offensive.' Persecution is ... 'oppression which is inflicted on groups or individuals because of a difference that the persecutor will not tolerate.'  Desir, 840 F.2d at 727 (quoting Kovac v. INS, 407 F.2d 102, 107 (9th Cir.1969) and Hernandez-Ortiz v. INS, 777 F.2d 509, 516 (9th Cir.1985)); accord Arteaga v. INS, 836 F.2d 1227, 1231 (9 Cir.1988) (quoting Cardoza-Fonseca v. INS, 767 F.2d 1448, 1452 (9th Cir.1985), aff'd, 480 U.S. 421, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987)); Milosevic v. INS, 18 F.3d 366, 370 (7th Cir.1994); cf. Bastanipour, 980 F.2d at 1133 (distinguishing persecution from mere discrimination or harassment). 40 The BIA has accepted this broad definition. In In re Acosta, 19 I. & N.Dec. 211 (BIA 1985), overruled on other grounds by In re Mogharrabi, 19 I. & N.Dec. 439 (BIA 1987), the Board concluded that Congress intended the INA to incorporate the pre-1980 definition of the term persecution, see id. at 222-23; accord In re Sanchez & Escobar, 19 I. & N.Dec. 276, 284-85 (BIA 1985). The Board also held that the suffering or harm inflicted could consist of confinement or torture. Acosta, 19 I. & N.Dec. at 222. Elaborating on this definition, the Third Circuit explained recently in Fatin v. INS, 12 F.3d 1233 (3d Cir.1993), that: 41 [T]he concept of persecution is broad enough to include governmental measures that compel an individual to engage in conduct that is not physically painful or harmful but is abhorrent to that individual's deepest beliefs. An example of such conduct might be requiring a person to renounce his or her religious beliefs or to desecrate an object of religious importance. Such conduct might be regarded as a form of torture and thus as falling within the Board's description of persecution in [In re Acosta], 19 I. & N.Dec. [211,] 222-23 [ (1985) ]. Such a requirement could constitute torture or persecution, however, only if directed against a person who actually possessed the religious beliefs or attached religious importance to the object in question. Requiring an adherent of an entirely different religion or a non-believer to engage in the same conduct would not constitute persecution. 42 Fatin, 12 F.3d at 1242 (emphasis added). 43 Based on this view, the Third Circuit assumed for the purposes of its analysis that requiring some women to wear chadors may be so abhorrent to them that it would be tantamount to persecution. Id. at 1242; accord Safaie v. INS, 25 F.3d 636, 640 (8th Cir.1994) (agreeing with the Fatin court on this point). This case differs from Fatin in that it involves a claim of persecution based upon forced compliance of the moral codes, not a claim that voluntary compliance itself amounts to persecution. 7 However, we agree with the Third Circuit's general point: when a person with religious views different from those espoused by a religious regime is required to conform to, or is punished for failing to comply with, laws that fundamentally are abhorrent to that person's deeply-held religious convictions, the resulting anguish should be considered in determining whether the authorities have engaged in extreme conduct that is tantamount to persecution. Fatin, 12 F.3d at 1240 n. 9, 1242. 8 44 We believe this extension of the principles articulated in Acosta also is supported by this circuit's decision in Canas-Segovia v. INS (Canas-Segovia I), 902 F.2d 717 (9th Cir.1990), vacated on other grounds, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1152, 117 L.Ed.2d 401 (1992) (vacated and remanded in light of Elias-Zacarias), aff'd (Canas-Segovia II), 970 F.2d 599 (9th Cir.1992). Canas-Segovia involved asylum claims by two Jehovah's Witnesses who contended that their refusal to endure conscription into the El Salvadoran armed forces would result in political or religious persecution. In a portion of the opinion affirmed after remand from the Supreme Court, see Canas-Segovia II, 970 F.2d at 601-02, we concluded that disproportionately severe punishment amounting to persecution would result if petitioners' forced-service in the military would cause them to sacrifice their religion's fundamental principle of pacifism, Canas-Segovia I, 902 F.2d at 728. 45 If the Jehovah's Witnesses in Canas-Segovia would suffer persecution when forced to sacrifice their belief in pacifism, we think it clear that being forced to conform to, or being sanctioned for failing to comply with, a conception of Islam that fundamentally is at odds with one's own also can rise to the level of persecution. Cf. Lee v. Weisman, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 2649, 2658, 120 L.Ed.2d 467 (1992) (recognizing that the religious dissenter of high school age who perceives that she is being forced by the State to pray in a manner her conscience will not allow [suffers an] injury [that] is no less real than overt compulsion). Indeed, when a member of a religion is forced to comply with an interpretation of her faith with which she disagrees, the case for persecution may be even stronger than it was in Canas-Segovia: the individual may suffer not only the general torture of conscience described by the Third Circuit in Fatin, but also the additional consequence of having imposed upon her a particular conception of the dictates of her own religion. 46 The INS nonetheless contends that, because Congress did not define the term 'persecution' in either the asylum or withholding of deportation statutes, this Court must defer to the Board's interpretation of that term. Respondent's Brief at 19-20, citing Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). 47 The Supreme Court does not routinely defer to the Board's interpretation of these asylum statutes. The Supreme Court did not mention Chevron in INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, ----, 112 S.Ct. 812, 815, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). The Supreme Court expressly refused to apply Chevron in interpreting the refugee statutes in INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987), where the court emphasized that questions of statutory interpretation lie within the province of the judiciary, not the agency. See Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 446, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 1221. The issues before us are issues of statutory interpretation like those in Elias-Zacarias and Cardoza-Fonseca. By looking only to physical sanctions petitioner experienced in the past, the INS violated the clear terms of the statute that requires it assess the likelihood of future persecution. 48 As to whether persecution can include being forced to engage in conduct that is abhorent to one's own religious beliefs, the Board in this case did not even consider the issue. Moreover, it is not at all clear that the Board's position in this regard is inconsistent with our own. Indeed, the Third Circuit in Fatin, 12 F.3d at 1242 (3rd Cir.1993), relying on the Board's own decision in Acosta, assumed without deciding that such coercion is persecution.
49 The Board did not address the question of whether Fisher would, in fact, fail to comply with the moral codes should she return to Iran. Because Fisher's claim is premised on the enforcement of the moral codes, demonstrating that her future noncompliance is likely is necessary in order to establish that she has a well-founded fear of persecution for that reason. 50 Fisher does not have to show, however, that she will take conscious steps to violate the moral codes in order to meet her burden in this regard. Although the Third Circuit implied recently that Iranians have a simple choice with respect to the moral codes, either to comply or not to comply and face the consequences, see Fatin, 12 F.3d at 1241-42; accord Safaie, 25 F.3d at 640, we think that this position ignores the realities of Iran. Clearly, one can violate the moral codes inadvertently. Cf. Hartooni, 21 F.3d at 341; Iran Cracks Down on Dress Code, Chicago Trib., July 11, 1993, at 11 (reporting an incident in which a female journalist had her car impounded because, she speculated, her sunglasses were the problem). Consequently, the Board should consider not only the possibility that Fisher intentionally would flout the moral codes, but also whether she might be sanctioned for inadvertent noncompliance. 51