Politician Calls Spousal Abuse 'cancer' Among Indo-canadians

[Greater-Punjab]

Politician calls spousal abuse 'cancer' among Indo-Canadians

[singhni84]

This is an interesting article. I would avoid de-gendering the issue by labeling it "spousal abuse" or "domestic violence" though. This isn't spouses abusing one another. This is violence against women.

[Guest s133k_s1kh]

This is an interesting article. I would avoid de-gendering the issue by labeling it "spousal abuse" or "domestic violence" though. This isn't spouses abusing one another. This is violence against women.

Some women beat their husband's too

[singhni84]

Singhavelli,

While I agree with you in part, I have to disagree on this issue of violence against women. Just as degendering the issue as "domestic violence/spousal abuse" causes us to lose focus on the actual issue (as the above comment by s133k_s1kh demonstrates), refusing to recognize the other specifications makes us ignorant to what is really happening.

Yes, all communities suffer from this problem. Presently however, we have multiple cases of women in the "Indo-Canadian" community being murdered by their intimate partners/husbands. We don't want to talk about it happening in our own households, but when we ignore the reality of the problem, the real face of it, we will find it impossible to identify and implement the proper solutions.

In BC, we should be aware of the numerous Aboroginal women who have gone missing and have been murdered after suffering extreme sexual violence, the vast majority of them having taken place along the "Highway of Tears". This is a SPECIFIC type of violence, being committed against a SPECIFIC type of person, against a SPECIFIC type of woman, at a SPECIFIC location. When we look at this as violence against ALL women, we can't solve the SPECIFIC problem of this happening at HORRIFICALLY greater rates to young Native and Aboriginal women than to any other woman in Canada. When we look at this as simply violence against ALL women rather than violence against THOSE specific women, then we aren't going to solve that specific problem. For example, we have asked for inquiries into THOSE deaths, but no one cares about them. We have asked for greater security and preventative measures along that highway, but no one cares about that highway. We have asked for preventative measures geared towards potential target victims (young, Aboriginal, all the other specifics that make those exact women at greater risk), but no one cares to address their specifics because it's easier to look at it broadly "without divisions". As a result of this broad-brush approach, the solutions that HAVE been found do not address the problem they are facing.

Similarly, when we refuse to address the specific needs of our own community, the Punjabi community, or the broader "Indo-Canadian" community, we won't find solutions that work for us. For example, the typical mainstream solution to "spousal abuse" is to create more shelters for abused women and now work being done to make them more accessible to racialized minorities. This is not the solution for our community. Shelters for our women are of no use because our women aren't going to use them. We need to solve the issue with a community-specific solution, not a mainstream one that will address OTHER communties. Each community has it's own needs and a "one size fits all" bandage solution is NOT needed or wanted.

If we refuse to recognize that this is happening right now in this community, then no one is going to care to find solutions for this community. We should be analytical and critical, yes. But at the same time, we need to stop being so ignorant.

[Guest s133k_s1kh]

I had said that jokingly :D . I knew you would get back to dat

[singhni84]

I'm highly predictable :D

[drawrof]

good exchange of ideas

lets get some ideas of the root of the issues:

- mysoginism within the community

- overwhelming desire for control of women in the house

- extended family politics as well as nuclear family politics

- inappropriate expressions of frustration

- lack of relationship development

lets get the ideas going, the truth is that 'religion isn't the answer'

why?

as a social institution we have failed in india....corruptness is affiliated with gurdwara's

deray aren't safe for women

gurdwaray aren't safe for women

in canada we're too quick to pass judgement and like to paint the issues with a 'faith' brush....it doesn't work that way

many amritdhari sikhs, such as myself, get so caught up in the zeal of sikhi that we lose sight of reality and real issues unless our lives are exposed to these problems. I have faith in gurmat and although i have faith society, i see the vices that are so constantly expounded in sikhi are what plagues humanity at large

lets not let this issue slip....