abusing women is by NO means

just an 'islamic thing'. we all know it's not. we all know it goes across color lines, religious lines, ethnic lines, social lines. we all know it happens everywhere from shanty towns to town houses.

it's especially hard for a women from another culture living in america though. not knowing the language and perhaps not knowing their rights here.

there are groups of muslim (men) who are trying to change some of the underculture of the relationships of wives and husbands. just like there are other different groups (of men) who are trying to change THEIR undercultures regarding the treatment of women.

sisterhood is powerful and i mean that

For Some Muslim Wives, Abuse Knows No Borders
Traditional Pressures Can Persist in U.S.

By Pamela Constable Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 8, 2007; Page A01
One was a shy, slender young woman who spoke no English when she was brought from Pakistan to enter an arranged marriage with a stranger in Virginia. The other was a self-confident professional, born in Turkey but raised in the United States, who thought she knew what she was doing when she married an educated Muslim man in Maryland.
Yet both women fell under the sway of the same powerful pressures that sometimes reach around the globe to keep Muslim wives in the Washington region imprisoned in abusive marriages, unable to fight the gossip and shame that come with defying their culture and religion, isolated from help that is just a three-digit phone number away...........

..............For many years, our community did not face these issues. Women suffered in silence and fear. Even today, many imams think it could never happen in their mosque," Khan said. "Islam gives equal rights to men and women, but there are myths in Muslim society that men are superior and violence is permitted. This is wrong, and it needs to be said."
Khan and others are also trying to bring men into the debate by forming a group called Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence. But they said recruiting participants is not easy. Even when taken to court on charges of abuse, several experts said, many Muslim men will argue that they were within their rights or are being victimized by vindictive spouses..........