Zakia Mashiri v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Zakia Mashiri (“Zakia”) petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the denial of her applications for asylum, withholding of deportation and voluntary departure. We grant the petition on the issue of asylum because Zakia’s credible testimony compels a finding of past persecution and because the respondent (“the government”) has failed to rebut the presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution.

I.

Zakia and her husband, Farid Mashiri (“Farid”), are natives of Afghanistan. The Mashiris moved to Germany in the 1970s and eventually settled in the German city of Bergedorf. Zakia became a German citizen. The Mashiris’ two sons, Asil and Hadjir, were born in Germany and are also German citizens. Despite their German citizenship and the family’s many years in Bergedorf, the Mashiris repeatedly experienced anti-foreigner threats and violence in Germany.

Farid, who worked as a taxi driver, was beaten twice by passengers in his cab. In March 1990, three passengers began making anti-foreigner statements and jokes during their ride. They invoked Germany’s Nazi past, telling Farid that foreigners would now be treated as Jewish Germans…