The Intimate Partner Violence Experience of Arab Immigrant Women in the U.S.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant problem for immigrant women in the U.S. There are a number of unique risk factors and help-seeking barriers (e.g., patriarchal beliefs, lack of social support, immigration status, language as a barrier, limited knowledge about and access to resources) that contribute to the likelihood of immigrant women being in and remaining in violent relationships. As a result, immigrant women often feel isolated, alone, and silenced in their attempt to address their IPV. However, we know less about the IPV experience of Arab immigrant women in the U.S. as these women hold multiple marginalized identities (e.g., racial/ethnic, gender, immigration status) and their IPV experiences may be potentially more complicated. Therefore, it is critical for researchers and practitioners to understand better about the intersectionality of these identities and their IPV experience. While many theories use a one-dimensional approach to understand the cause of IPV (e.g., individual-based, feminist), Heise’s (1998) ecological model suggests the cause of IPV is at the integration of individual, microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem factors. Using this ecological model as a theoretical framework, I examined the IPV experience of Arab immigrant women in the U.S. using a qualitative framework. The focus of this study is to examine how the individual, microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem factors impact the lived experience of Arab immigrant women who are survivors of IPV