"What's Love Got to Do": Tracing Violence Against Post-Soviet Women in Cross-Border Marriages

Abstract

Women in cross-border marriages are at a heightened risk of experiencing domestic violence, as they areparticularly traumatised by the experience of migration, which undermines their capacity for independentaction, and they are more vulnerable at the intersections of status, ethnicity, employment, and income. Usingthe theoretical framework of narrative victimology, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted withfive women from post-Soviet countries (Ukraine and Belarus) who were married to Israeli Arab Muslims.This study examines the experience of victimisation and spousal abuse among Slavic Christian women fromthe FSU married to Arab Muslims in Israel. The narratives of the women confirmed that cross-border spousesare susceptible to domestic abuse and intimate partner violence. The constellation of a cross-border familycombines the external risk factors, such as the trauma of migration and the loss of socio-economic stability,the cultural factors associated with the patriarchal nature of Arab society and the tolerance of wife-beating,and the individual man's need to maintain control through the use of coercion and violence. Isolation, as anatural consequence of immigration and as a coercive technique used by an abuser, operates together,intensifying the experience of abuse and preventing the woman from reaching out for help. Pregnancy andchildbearing constituted a particular risk factor for perpetrating abuse against cross-border wives bydebilitating the woman and further preventing her from leaving the abusive marriage.