INS Grants Asylum to Religious Refugee

An Armenian refugee whose quest for religious asylum sparked controversy in the Los Angeles Armenian community was granted asylum by an Immigration and Naturalization Services judge Tuesday, said Louis Gordon, a Pasadena attorney who represented the woman.

The government has 30 days to appeal the ruling.

Armine, 34, who asked that her last name not be used, fled to the United States in 1994 after she said an organized band of men in her hometown of Yerevan terrorized her for her involvement in a fringe religious group.

A self-described Christian, Armine said she was persecuted for practicing transcendental meditation, an Indian form of meditation.

The Apostolic Church, the majority religious organization resurging after 70 years of suppression under the former Soviet regime, published articles that warned Christians away from that type of meditation and other less mainstream spiritual practices, according to Amnesty International.

These articles contributed to an intolerant environment and may have led a group of men--who sometimes claimed to represent the government--to beat, torture, threaten and rape people whose religious practices did not correspond to any of the established religions, according to Amnesty International and Armine’s own accounts.

Armine said she left her mother, sister and a daughter who is now 13. Her mother was recently granted a visa from Armenia, and if the government decides not to appeal, Armine can soon fill out a refugee petition form to bring her daughter to this country too, Gordon said.