HUMAN RIGHTS | Defending human dignity
22 April 2008
Activist Helps Women Immigrants in Finland
Raija Ala-Lipasti fights intolerance of the foreign-born
Washington -- Being an immigrant is difficult; being a female immigrant can be even more difficult. But Raija Ala-Lipasti is working diligently to raise public awareness of immigrant women and political asylum seekers in Finland.
She is the executive director of Turku Women’s Center (TWC), an independent nongovernmental organization (NGO) run by and for women. Founded in 1996, TWC works to prevent all violence -- physical, mental, emotional, and honor-related -- against women and to improve the situation of immigrant women in Finland.
Ala-Lipasti’s goal is to reduce exclusion and intolerance and to promote equality and acceptance of cultural pluralism by helping immigrant women integrate into Finnish society, embrace the Finnish way of life and find jobs.
Although Finland has one of the smallest proportions of immigrant populations in Europe -- just more than 2 percent among 5.3 million -- negative attitudes toward the foreign-born are prevalent. For example, in 2007, of the 1,505 applicants, 68 received approval for political asylum in Finland. Some 792 individuals, however, received a residence permit because of their need for protection for other reasons.
Recently Ala-Lipasti used publicity to force public discussion of the issue when campaigning for Naze Aghai, an Iranian-Kurdish asylum-seeker who was facing deportation. Aghai applied for political asylum in Finland in 2005 when she left her homeland after suffering persecution and torture and being forced into an arranged marriage.
Largely due to Ala-Lipasti’s persistent work (as well as the support of St. Michael’s Parish in Turku, which gave Aghai sanctuary after she initially was refused asylum), the Helsinki Administrative Court ruled in September 2007 to defer Aghai’s deportation.
Ala-Lipasti’s exemplary work earned her a nomination for the U.S. Secretary of State’s 2008 Women of Courage Award. Inaugurated in 2007, the award is the result of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s desire to recognize exceptional women around the globe.
