A rally is to be held outside Mountjoy prison this evening in support of a Nigerian woman who is fighting to stay in the Republic because she fears her two daughters will be subjected to genital mutilation if the family is deported.
The executive director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Fiona Neary, said the 'Let Her Stay' rally had been organised to ask the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell "not to turn a blind eye and ignore the problem" of female genital mutilation.
Ms Pamela Izbekhai was arrested in Sligo and brought to Mountjoy prison on Thursday night after leaving a reunion meeting with her two young children and a social worker. She had been in hiding for five weeks.
Her first daughter died after being subjected to genital mutilation and there are fears that her two daughters will suffer the same fate if they are deported, a High Court hearing seeking an interim injunction preventing her deportation was told last week.
At last Friday's hearing, Mr Justice Barry White ordered that an affidavit be sworn by this week and that Ms Izbekhai should not be deported before her case was heard on January 23rd.