TORONTO - A former dentist who claims her five-year-old twins will have to undergo female genital mutilation if they return to Nigeria has won a temporary stay to remain in Canada and a new immigration board hearing.

A pregnant Onyinyechi Onyemaechi Ohaka, who lives in Toronto, arrived in Canada in 2005 on a visitor's visa and within months gave birth to the girls, who are Canadians, court documents show.

She said shortly after their birth, her estranged doctor husband in Nigeria began demanding that she bring the girls back to be circumcised, in accordance with the custom of their Igbo tribe, court heard.

"Given that female gender mutilation is brutal and could endanger the girls' lives, she submitted a refugee claim based largely on her fear that her daughters would be subjected to (the procedure) if required to return to Nigeria," Judge Paul Crampton said in an Oct. 22 decision.

Ohaka's refugee claim had been rejected and she filed an appeal to the court in a bid to stop her removal from Canada with her twins.

Ohaka's estranged spouse's family would demand that her daughters be subjected to undergo the painful process, Crampton said.

He disagreed with an Immigration and Refugee Board ruling that found Ohaka's fears "not credible."

"The officer also found that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Ms. Ohaka or her daughters would suffer unusual and undeserved hardship as a result of having to sever their ties with their friends in Canada," Crampton said.

Ohaka will be given a new hearing before another immigration board.

tom.godfrey@sunmedia.ca