Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience¹

1 I would like to thank all the South Asian women who participated in my research and the following South Asian Women’s Organizations: Sakhi for South Asian Women,SEWAA(Service and Education for Women Against Abuse), Apna Ghar, Manavi, Maitri and Sneha. Without their support this work would not be possible. I am grateful to Kanta Khipple and Usha Ari for sharing their home with me on my trips to Chicago and Philadelphia. I would also like to thank Pradeep Singh, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Cynthia Bogard, Susan Wadley, Helen Sheehan, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. This research was partially funded by a Rockefeller Fellowship from the Asian American Center, Queens College, and a Faculty Research and Development Grant from Hofstra University.

Abstract

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawnfrom unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman’s relationship with her spouse; the second is related to thefrequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.

Key Words:

• Isolation
• Marital violence
• South Asian immigrants
• Community

Notes

1 I would like to thank all the South Asian women who participated in my research and the following South Asian Women’s Organizations: Sakhi for South Asian Women,SEWAA(Service and Education for Women Against Abuse), Apna Ghar, Manavi, Maitri and Sneha. Without their support this work would not be possible. I am grateful to Kanta Khipple and Usha Ari for sharing their home with me on my trips to Chicago and Philadelphia. I would also like to thank Pradeep Singh, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Cynthia Bogard, Susan Wadley, Helen Sheehan, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. This research was partially funded by a Rockefeller Fellowship from the Asian American Center, Queens College, and a Faculty Research and Development Grant from Hofstra University.