Sexual abuse: Conclusion

We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing the different forms of sexual abuse that SA immigrant women experience in their marriages – these include marital rape, control of reproductive rights, and using a sexual ‘other.’ But husbands may not be the only perpetrators; Abraham found that some women were doubly abused by their husbands and by other men. One woman was molested by her brother-in-law, and two other women were sexually harassed by friends that they were staying with upon leaving their abusive marriages. In the latter cases, while the men played the role of ‘protector and confidant,’ they also took advantage of the woman’s vulnerability and lack of outside support.

Many women experience sexual abuse in their marriages and their relationships, of course, but immigrant women are especially vulnerable. As Abraham notes, SA immigrant women look within their own community for assistance when they find themselves in an abusive relationship. This is both for reasons of cultural comfort (although the community has not, until recently, proven willing to face up to the issue of domestic violence) and due to their real or perceived experiences of ethnic and gender discrimination in US society. Abraham suggests that one way to help SA immigrant women who find themselves in sexually abusive relationships is to collect their stories to better understand and address the problem.

[For more information, see: Abraham, M. (2000). Sexual Abuse in South Asian Immigrant Marriages. Violence Against Women, 5(6), 612-618.]