Domestic violence 'devastating problem' for immigrant wives
Robert L. Smith/Religion News Service
Issue date: 8/10/08 Section: Divine Intervention
LAKEWOOD, Ohio - The first time her screams brought police to the house, the Lakewood mother lied. She told the officers that her husband did not strike her.
She was thinking of her Muslim immigrant community and the role she was expected to play. Faithful wife. Submissive mother. Mostly, she was thinking of her children and how she would support them without an income.
The night the police came back, she did not have to weigh what to say. She heard her enraged husband admit that, yes, he smacked his wife. He owned her. He could hit her.
"No, you cannot," she recalled the officer answering, and he led her husband out of the house and out of her daily life.
The Palestinian Muslim woman asked that her anonymity be protected because she fears further angering her husband or his family. Last year, she took a step almost unheard of in her community as she declared herself a victim of domestic violence, secured an order of protection against her husband and filed for divorce.
Recently, an unprecedented coalition of women has come together in the Cleveland area to confront domestic violence in their immigrant communities. They hope to throw a lifeline to victims - even to those reluctant to be rescued.
It requires courage for any woman to leave an abusive household and seek help from strangers, but immigrant women often must summon a special valor. They are more likely to live in seclusion, far from friends or family. They may not speak English, work or drive a car. Often, they see themselves at the mercy of the man who brought them here. And they may belong to a subculture slow to acknowledge their troubles.
a devastating problem for every victim," said Mira Kramarovsky, a family-violence specialist for the Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland. "But when you don't know the language, and you're afraid of everything - even your partner - it's even worse."
Jewish community was among the first to address domestic violence within the region's insular immigrant groups. It saw the problem flare with the influx of Russian Jews in the 1990s and the later infusion of "mail-order brides," often Russian women who met local men over the Internet.
She was thinking of her Muslim immigrant community and the role she was expected to play. Faithful wife. Submissive mother. Mostly, she was thinking of her children and how she would support them without an income.
The night the police came back, she did not have to weigh what to say. She heard her enraged husband admit that, yes, he smacked his wife. He owned her. He could hit her.
"No, you cannot," she recalled the officer answering, and he led her husband out of the house and out of her daily life.
The Palestinian Muslim woman asked that her anonymity be protected because she fears further angering her husband or his family. Last year, she took a step almost unheard of in her community as she declared herself a victim of domestic violence, secured an order of protection against her husband and filed for divorce.
Recently, an unprecedented coalition of women has come together in the Cleveland area to confront domestic violence in their immigrant communities. They hope to throw a lifeline to victims - even to those reluctant to be rescued.
It requires courage for any woman to leave an abusive household and seek help from strangers, but immigrant women often must summon a special valor. They are more likely to live in seclusion, far from friends or family. They may not speak English, work or drive a car. Often, they see themselves at the mercy of the man who brought them here. And they may belong to a subculture slow to acknowledge their troubles.
a devastating problem for every victim," said Mira Kramarovsky, a family-violence specialist for the Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland. "But when you don't know the language, and you're afraid of everything - even your partner - it's even worse."
Jewish community was among the first to address domestic violence within the region's insular immigrant groups. It saw the problem flare with the influx of Russian Jews in the 1990s and the later infusion of "mail-order brides," often Russian women who met local men over the Internet.
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