Never Again

Annu Peshawaria

Description

Anu Peshawaria has over the years rendered a yeoman service to the immigrant community in the United States, particularly by taking up women's issues. She has handled a large number of international family law cases and got legal status for numerous families in the United States by strongly supporting their legitimate claims. She also continues to educate families about the precautions to be taken while entering into international matrimony. The time and energy she has invested in this noble cause of helping parents, women and young children through their resettlement process in the United States merits commendation. "Never Again" is yet another attempt by the author to address the issue of victimization through domestic violence that transcends the boundaries of gender and sexual orientation. Recognizing that women are more often the victims of domestic violence and are more likely to be physically abused, she outlines the legal recourse available in such a scenario. We are indeed proud of Attorney Anu Peshawaria's contribution, particularly so, as an Indian American who has excelled in her chosen field. I wish her all the very best in her future endeavors.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Diamond Books
• Date de parution: 19 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789352965564
• Langue: English

Extrait

Never Again
An Indian American attorney’s campaign against domestic violence and abuse among South Asian families
 

 
eISBN: 978-93-5296-556-4
© Author
Publisher: Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd.
X-30, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II New Delhi-110020
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Website: www.diamondbook.in
Edition: 2019
Never Again: An Indian American attorney’s campaign against domestic violence and abuse among South Asian families
By – Anu Peshawaria
Foreword
Attorney Anu Peshawaria continues her crusade against injustice affecting women encountering physical and emotional abuse in the United States. In her latest book, Never Again, she unravels the effect of domestic violence on relationships, individuals, children and society at large. Focusing on the plight of women and taking up their cause by flagging their legal rights, Anu has been able to bring to the fore an issue recognized as a significant social malaise by governmental and non-governmental agencies both in India and the United States. Her clarion call for instituting legal safeguards will no doubt encourage policy initiatives to stem the tide. The various “Violence Against Acts” passed by the US Congress are welcome first steps in this direction.
Anu Peshawaria’s two previous books, “The Immigrant’s Dream” and “Lives on the Brink” had also broached the subject, drawing the attention of lawmakers to address the root cause of domestic violence within South Asian families in the United States. Her present book further supplements these arguments making a strong case for urgent remedial measures. It is a call for action that can no longer be glossed over or ignored by policy makers.
Anu Peshawaria has over the years rendered a yeoman service to the immigrant community in the United States, particularly by taking up women’s issues. She has handled a large number of international family law cases and got legal status for numerous families in the United States by strongly supporting their legitimate claims. She also continues to educate families about the precautions to be taken while entering into international matrimony. The time and energy she has invested in this noble cause of helping parents, women and young children through their resettlement process in the United States merits commendation.
“Never Again” is yet another attempt by the author to address the issue of victimization through domestic violence that transcends the boundaries of gender and sexual orientation. Recognizing that women are more often the victims of domestic violence and are more likely to be physically abused, she outlines the legal recourse available in such a scenario.
We are indeed proud of Attorney Anu Peshawaria’s contribution, particularly so, as an Indian American who has excelled in her chosen field. I wish her all the very best in her future endeavors.
–Ambassador Sanjay Panda , Consul General of India San Francisco, CA
Preface
There can be a hardly more opportune time than now, in the midst of a culturally, politically and economically powerful Me Too movement across the world to revisit the larger cause of domestic violence and abuse. There is an urgent need for an equally powerful social media-driven movement against domestic violence and abuse. #NeverAgain .
As an attorney with long years of passionate advocacy of this very important sociocultural and legal issue, I have been particularly focused on domestic violence and abuse in the Diasporic Indian/South Asian families in the United States. Anecdotal experience suggests that the problem exists in a significant way among the large expatriate Indian population around the world as well but often does not get the attention it so urgently demands.
Just as Me Too , fueled by the extraordinary courage and conviction of women silenced and oppressed for decades as well as aided by the power and reach of social media, has become a global force to reckon with, there is an equal need for a movement against domestic violence and abuse. One is conscious that South Asian women trapped in violent and abusive domestic situations may find it particularly hard to make their case to the world on social media but it is a tool that ought to be employed to network across the world to put abusive spouses and families on immediate notice and end it once and for all.
The case of Indian and South Asian women from India and elsewhere in South Asia who marry Indian/ South Asian men living in the United States and end up in violent or abusive domestic situations is unique for several reasons. Perhaps the most important one is that many of them are either completely unprepared or ill-prepared to deal with it because of the fact they find themselves in a wholly new sociocultural milieu in a country some 10,000 miles from India and other South Asian countries. Many of them fall into such relationships even before they have had the time to familiarize themselves with their immediate surroundings, let alone social and legal services available to them.
Overarching their rather harrowing lives is the fear of social stigma that is particularly intense for the women who come from South Asia. More often than not, they have been told stories of how a wonderful life awaits them in America, the world’s richest country, which would be a dramatic improvement for them compared to what they experience India. With that as the backdrop, to find oneself in an abusive relationship so far away from familiar surroundings makes things much harder for them. The consequence is that many of them choose to endure abuse rather than upset the rhythm of their lives.
My extensive engagement with women trapped in abusive relationships tells me that one common feeling among them is one of utter helplessness exacerbated by what society back home might say about their failure to make their marriages work. I also find that a majority of these women would not only muster enough courage to speak out but even take legal action if they had a helping hand either from individually attorneys like me or legal aid groups.
Although there have been no national or statewide studies of Indian/South Asian women and domestic violence in the US, there is reason to believe that this is a growing problem. Indian Americans are a reasonably large group of people. According to the U.S, Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey, there are 3,982,398 multi-race, multi-ethnic and single-race Asian Indians, of which 3,699,957 are single race. While Indian Americans barely constitutes about 1 percent of the U.S. population, because of their broad economic success they are a force to reckon with far beyond their numbers.
In terms of domestic and sexual violence among South Asian communities, a fact sheet released by the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-based Violence is quite instructive. Here are some of their findings:
Domestic violence In a study of a convenience sample of 208 South Asian women recruited through community outreach in the Greater Boston area: 21% reported having ever experienced physical and/or sexual abuse at the hands of their intimate partner; 15% reported such experience during the previous year. (Hurwitz EJH, Gupta J, Liu R, Silverman JG, Raj A. Intimate partner violence associated with poor health outcomes in U.S. South Asian women. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 2006.) In a face-to-face interview study of 1,577 Asians recruited from Asian organizations and gathering places in the greater Houston area in Texas: 20% of Indian respondents (154 male and female) reported experiencing at least one form of intimate partner violence based on the 8-item Conflict Tactics Scale, ranging from “thrown objects at the respondent” to “used a knife or gun on the respondent” during the previous year. (Leung P, Cheung M. A prevalence study on partner abuse in six Asian American ethnic groups in the USA. International Social Work. 2008.) A study on lifecourse experiences of intimate partner violence and help-seeking (Lifecourse IPV and Help-Seeking Study), which assessed experiences of IPV among 56 Indian and Pakistani abused women (and 87 Filipina women) aged 18-60 recruited via various community outreach methods in the San Francisco Bay Area, found that: 96% of Indian and Pakistani victims reported having experienced having experienced physical violence by an intimate partner. 50% of Indian and Pakistani victims reported having experienced stalking by an intimate partner. 64% of Indian and Pakistani victims reported having experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner. Indian and Pakistani victims born in the U.S. or who had immigrated to the U.S. pre-adolescence (1.5+ generations) were more likely to experience all three forms of IPV - physical violence, sexual assault, and stalking, compared to those born outside the U.S. and those who immigrated post-adolescence. Younger Indian and Pakistani victims were more likely to experience stalking by intimate partners compared to their older counterparts. (Yoshihama M, Bybee D, Dabby C, Blazevski J. Lifecourse experiences of intimate partner violence and helpseeking among Filipina, Indian, and Pakistani women: Implications for justice system responses. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice; 2010.) A study of 160 South Asian women (who were married or in a heterosexual relationship), recruited through community outreach methods such as flyers, snowball sampling, and referrals in Greater Boston (Raj and Silverman Study), found that: 42% of the participants reported that they had been physically and/or sexually abused in some way by their current male partners in their lifetime; 36.9% reported having been victimized in the past year. 30% reported having experienced partners’ physical abuse, and 18.8% reported having experienced partners’ sexual abuse. 65.2% of the women reporting physical abuse also reported sexual abuse. 16% reported injury or the need for medical services as a