Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence among South Asian Immigrants in the United States

by Margaret Abraham

Overview

Over the past 20 years, much work has focused on domestic violence, yet little attention has been paid to the causes, manifestations, and resolutions to marital violence among ethnic minorities, especially recent immigrants. Margaret Abraham’s Speaking the Unspeakable is the first book to focus on South Asian women’s experiences of domestic violence, defined by the author as physical, sexual, verbal, mental, or economic coercion, power, or control perpetrated on a woman by her spouse or extended kin. Abraham explains how immigration issues, cultural assumptions, and unfamiliarity with American social, legal, economic, and other institutional systems, coupled with stereotyping, make these women especially vulnerable to domestic violence.

Abraham lets readers hear the voices of abused South Asian women. Through their stories, we learn of their weaknesses and strengths, and of their experiences of domestic violence within the larger cultural, social, economic, and political context. We see both the individual strategies of resistance against their abusers as well as the pivotal role South Asian organizations play in helping these women escape abusive relationships.

Abraham also describes the central role played by South Asian activism as it emerged in the 1980s in the United States, and addresses the ideas and practices both within and outside of the South Asian community that stereotype, discriminate, and oppress South Asians in their everyday lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813527932
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Margaret Abraham is an associate professor of sociology at Hofstra University.

Table of Contents

Preface  
Acknowledgments  
Introduction: Framing the Issues
Marriage and Family
Immigrant Status and Marital Violence
Isolation: Alone in a Foreign Country
Sexual Abuse
Internal and External Barriers: It's Not Only the Abuser
Fighting Back: Abused Women's Strategies of Resistance
Making a Difference: South Asian Women's Organizations in the United States
Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Reflections on Our Transformational Politic
Appendix A. Profile of Respondents at Time of Interview      
Appendix B. Notes on the Research Process     
Notes        
References      
Index    

Editorial Reviews

This groundbreaking book combines an insightful scholarly analysis with the powerful voices of women. Also important are its presentation of sexual abuse and its emphasis on individual and community resistance and on cultural and legal oppression. 

coeditor of To Have and to Hit: Cultural Perspectives in Wife Battering - Jacquelyn Campbell

Margaret Abraham breaks through the myth of the 'model minority' and speaks the unspeakable: violence against women in our families. She articulates the complexities of domestic violence in South Asian women's lives circumscribed by culture, tradition, law, and isolation in a new country. Through it all, we hear women's voices and experiences loud and clear. 

editor of A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America - Shamita Das Dasgupta