South Asian Women

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Introduction South Asian women engage in patriarchal values and normative structure established more than two thousands years ago, continue to be oppressed by a dominant group of men. These women suffer further oppression through the strict adherence to cultural garb. Still today, media and educational system portray South Asian women as self-sacrificing, faithful to the family, and submissive to men. 1. Identify and understand the vulnerable population. Various theorists under the umbrella of critical social theory believe that all subordinate groups are oppressed on personal, cultural and institutional levels by visible and invisible structures as well as by conscious and unconscious means. (Mullaly, 2010 ). This oppression and discrimination is experienced through several forms of oppression including violence, racism classism and sexism not only at a personal level but also at the structural level. This high risk population is vulnerable for internalizing the oppression as an accepted norm. Mullaly believes that “people may be given certain rights but still be unable to exercise their rights due to particular social constraints based on class, gender, race and ethnicity.” 2-Size and Scope of the Vulnerable Population In a 1999, a national survey was conduct on the domestic violence of women in Canada . The study concluded that the highest prevalence of abuse was found in the homes of immigrants from developing countries. This study shows that most immigrant women internalize and hide the crimes due to social stigma, shame, cultural/religious constraints and lack of community resources (Preisser, 1999). Shirwadkar (2004) revealed that the presence of the Indian immigrant communities has a higher concentratio... ... middle of paper ... ... values of empowerment and self-determination as an effective tools to assist the oppressed population to eradicate violence, social injustice and marginalization of their lives. These approaches are not viable unless programs are designed to address the various barriers including social integration, economic security, custody of children, and access to appropriate community resources. Abstract The pressures of cultural, ethnicity, lower socio economic status and family ties prevent these immigrant women from suffering violence, oppression and social injustice. Gender-based violence is made possible by the ideology of sexism in Indian traditional culture which argues that women are worth less than men in the sense of having less power, status, privilege, and access to resources that is more prevalent in middle class and low caste families.

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