ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how immigrant status influences violence experienced by women. It provides answer, from the perspective of immigrant women, the most frequently asked questions about battered women: why are they battered? Why don't they report the violence to the police? Why don't they access social services offered in the new country? Why don't they seek help from their own people? Religious leaders of immigrant communities are quick to point out that women who disclose domestic violence are a very small minority of deviant rebellious women, and that abuse does not really exist among their followers. Engagement with issues of culture conflict, particularly those related to deeply entrenched notions of gender and the 'natural order of the world', will not be easy. Feminists have long argued that woman battering, particularly among intimates, is an expression of male power, domination and control. Research has demonstrated that immigrants appear to be especially vulnerable to victimization, ironically at the hands of their own.
