Subtitle:Marital Violence Among South Asian Immigrants in the United States
Author: Margaret Abraham
Subject: Sociology/Asian American Studies/Women's Studies
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2792-9
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2793-7
Pages: 256 pp., 10 b&w illus.
Description: A comprehensive discussion of marital violence among South Asians, an ethnic community often labeled a "model minority" in the United States

Winner American Sociology Association Asia/Asian America Section Book Award!

"Using in-depth interviews, Abraham presents a detailed analysis of abused South Asian immigrant women in the U.S. . . . [She] argues for a more holistic approach to domestic violence by scholars, activists, and policy makers. The compelling narratives and meticulous analysis highly recommend this book."-Choice

"Abraham breaks silences by challenging the model minority myth of Asian Americans, in this case of South Asian immigrants, by focusing on how marital violence can be supported by families and communities that choose to ignore its existence or, even worse, contribute to the continued abuse of the women. Her work captures micro-level analysis of the lives and voices of the women who are abused as well as their relationship with their abusers, their relatives in the United States and abroad, and the larger ethnic community. . . . One of the strengths of Abraham's book is her weaving together the narratives of these women's experience before their marriages, how their relationships became abusive, how the women responded to the abuse, and what resource they had to escape these unions."-Journal of Asian American Studies

"Margaret Abraham's book joins a growing number of scholarly works that examine the lives of South Asian immigrants in the United States. The significance of Abraham's work is that it is the first to perform a thorough analysis of what is probably the most prevalent social problem that South Asian women face in the United States-marital violence. . . . [This study is] extraordinarily important in providing an overarching discussion of marital violence, which is an issue that neither the mainstream South Asian community nor the rest of American society speak about."-Contemporary South Asia

"An important contribution to both academic and policy fields. Besides offering a new theoretical framework to study domestic violence that can recognize the effects of both structure and culture on women's diverse experiences of abuse, Abraham has challenged the assumption of women's universal experience of abuse in early feminist theory by indicating that experiences of abuse are shaped by culture and by different locations in the hierarchies of race, class, and gender. . . . A valuable book for courses in gender studies, criminology, criminal justice, and social work, and for policy makers as well as practitioners working with abused women."-Criminal Justice Review

"Domestic violence, once a dark, heinous secret concealed behind closed doors, is now a repugnant truth brought to light. Margaret Abraham's sociological study documents the cultural and ethnic complexities of marital violence within the South Asian immigrant community. . . . Abraham interviewed twenty-five women from a number of South Asian countries. . . . Their voices are the heart of the book, describing in their own words, the variety of abuses they experienced. . . . This book has an urgent, compelling message. Abraham brings to light a problem afflicting every community and in the end shows how someone can find help."-Hinduism Today

"Margaret Abraham reveals a hidden side to the 'model minority' lives of South Asian immigrants-marital violence against women. Through in-depth interviews with twenty five abused women . . . Abraham argues convincingly that there are special factors affecting the causes and consequences of domestic abuse within immigrant communities, something largely neglected by the literature and the policies dealing with the issue."-Social Forces

"Speaking the Unspeakable explores issues of domestic violence in the South Asian immigrant community from an ethno-gender perspective. This allows [Abraham] to study the problem, giving due weight to gender, ethnicity, class and legal issues that affect the abused women . . . . Abraham's framework and analysis are academic but the narratives that accompany the analysis humanize the issues and make the book accessible to lay people as well."-Pacific Reader

"Abraham's work presents a relatively unexplored dimensions of such violence, especially marital violence, as it occurs among the South Asian immigrant community in the United States. Abraham takes note of the social, legal, racial and ethnic factors that provide the contextual context within which this violence occurs and she also provides women's voices narrating their experience of violence in a new role and relationship, to a mostly unknown male, in a new country. . . . The book . . . is also a painful and heartbreaking commentary on the enduring struggle by immigrants for recognition and equality in addition to their search for freedom from the oppressive patriarchal baggage they have carried from their countries of origin."-The Book Review

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

"Margaret Abraham breaks through the myth of '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 can hear women's voices and experiences loud and clear." -Shamita Das Dasgupta, editor of A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America

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.

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