Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in AmericaShamita Das Dasgupta When South Asians immigrated to the United States in great numbers in the 1970s, they were passionately driven to achieve economic stability and socialize the next generation to retain the traditions of their home culture. During these years, the immigrant community went to great lengths to project an impeccable public image by denying the existence of social problems such as domestic violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, mental illness, racism, and intergenerational conflict. It was not until recently that activist groups have worked to bring these issues out into the open. In Body Evidence, more than twenty scholars and public health professionals uncover the unique challenges faced by victims of violence in intimate spaces . . . within families, communities and trusted relationships in South Asian American communities. Topics include cultural obsession with women's chastity and virginity; the continued silence surrounding intimate violence among women who identify themselves as lesbian, bisexual, or transgender; the consequences of refusing marriage proposals or failing to meet dowry demands; and, ultimately, the ways in which the United States courts often confuse and exacerbate the plights of these women. |
Contents
PART | 9 |
The Many Faces of Domestic Violence in | 24 |
Reflecting on Marital Violence | 38 |
Copyright | |
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Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in America Shamita Das Dasgupta No preview available - 2007 |
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Abraham acid violence activists advocates Andrea Yates anti-domestic violence Arab Asian battered women attorney Bangladesh battered South Asian behavior Berkeley Bina campaign child sexual abuse context court divorce domestic violence eating disorders emotional ethnic experiences fear female feminist filicide gender girls H-1B visa H-4 visa holders H-IB Hijab husband immi immigrant women India individual interviews Islamic issues Jain Jainism Lakireddy Lakireddy Bali Reddy law enforcement legal system lence lesbian LGBT lives mainstream male Manavi marriage married mental health model minority mother Muslim Muslim women Naripokkho norms options parents participants partner percent perpetrators physical physicians police problems Reddy relationship religious responses role seek service providers sexual abuse social South Asian American South Asian battered South Asian community South Asian immigrant South Asian women spouses survivors tion understand United VAWA victims violence against women Western wife wives woman