South Asian Battered Women’s Use of Force Against Intimate Male Partners

Abstract

The purpose of this practice note is to explore issues that arise in Manavi's work with South Asian women who use nonfatal force in heterosexual intimate relationships. It provides a nuanced understanding of the contexts within which a South Asian woman uses physical force. It addresses the many barriers a South Asian woman faces in an abusive relationship that ultimately may lead her to use of force. The goal of the practice note is to act as a tool to strengthen advocacy and service provision made available to South Asian female survivors of violence and abuse.

Breaking the silence: Perspectives on sexual violence among Indian American women.

“…Consistent with previous studies with immigrant, first-generation South Asian American women (Kallivayalil, 2007;Roy, 2012), participants reported that women are expected to uphold family unity, even when they are victims of sexual violence. The lack of discussion about sex and sexual violence within families and ethnic and religious communities compounded the negative effects of the expectation of preserving family connections by either denying violence or minimizing its effects on survivors' lives.…”

In Her Own Words: Women Describe Their Use of Force Resulting in Court-Ordered Intervention

“…For marginalized women, these intersecting realities (Crenshaw, 1991) often dramatically increase the likelihood that they will be criminalized for their use of force against abusive partners. Women of color are particularly at risk of arrest (Potter, 2008; Richie, 1996, 2012; Sokoloff, 2005; West, 2002, 2009), as are South Asian immigrant women (Dasgupta, 1999, 2002; Roy, 2012), those who are physically disabled (Ballan & Freyer, 2012), and women who identify as lesbian (Ristock, 2002). Likewise, women consuming alcohol at the time of a violent incident are more likely than their intoxicated male partners to be identified by police as the primary perpetrators (Hester, 2012).…”

Our bodies, our minds, our men: working South Asian women

“…Amid Asia's economic rise, the extreme weightage to anguish and angst, in contrast to contentment and calm is starkly illustrated through inequitable paradigms in the lives of millions of South Asian women. This region has had a long history of British rulejurisprudence and English language, along with intertwined threads of religio-political based violence -Hinduism and Islam, child marriage, dowry and a strong orientation towards patriarchy (Roy, 2012;Raju and Lahiri-Dutt, 2011). Women in the global South, in contrast to many women in the global North, experience violence, victimization and poverty as an almost everyday phenomenon.…”