[ OP ED ]
A LOSS OF LIFE,A Community’s Responsibility

As representatives of South Asian community organizations working to end violence against women and promote awareness of mental health issues and civil rights, we are deeply saddened by the recent brutal murder of Pratixabahen Patel, a 35-year old South Asian woman on August 9,2009.

As the community deals with the trauma and grief of this incident, it is important to broaden our lens to understand the epidemic of domestic violence that affects families around the country from all backgrounds.

Through our direct service and advocacy work with South Asian survivors of violence, we know all too well that domestic violence can affect all families regardless of religion, race, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and age or immigration status. Even though domestic abuse occurs in our community, we often hear different messages: that domestic violence does not happen in our community; that it does not happen within educated families; and that it is not an important issue for an entire community to address. From non-South Asians, we often hear that domestic violence must somehow be unique to South Asian communities, given our customs, beliefs and familial relationships, or that it does not occur based on false stereotypes they have about South Asians.

As a result of these misperceptions, survivors of violence are often wary of seeking assistance, whether it is for restraining orders, mental health treatment or shelters.

Women are battered in every culture and the common factor is the social sanction of violence against women, across cultures. Our collective work as a society then is to build safe communities where everyone can live free of fear. We must bear the collective responsibility of keeping everyone safe. And that work cannot be done in isolation by a few community based organizations such as ours. It has to be done by all of us, working together.

We ask you to support the work of ending violence against women and children in our communities. We ask that you listen to and empower survivors in your community. We ask that you look at legislation that compromises survivor safety and speak out against it and to advocate for laws and policies that protect survivors and provide them with linguistic and cultural access to the justice system, law enforcement and shelters.

The entire community must be prepared to speak out against violence and address it in our homes, places of worship, cultural centers, and social service organizations. We ask you to reach out to someone who needs your support. We urge that as community members you take a stand, speak out against violence and be a force for change because it is only as a community that we can prevent the murders of women like Pratixabahen Patel.

Community-based organizations, Manaví, SAMHAJ,SAALT are all members of the National Coalition of South Asian Organizations.

Manavi is a New Jersey-based women’s rights organization committed to end all forms of violence and exploitation against South Asian women living in the U.S. Manavi provides access to critical services including peer support counseling and advocacy, legal clinics and referral, support group, safe housing, interpretation and accompaniment. In the last 5 years, Manavi assisted 1,242 South Asian women in the U.S who faced domestic abuse. For more information, visit www.manavi.org.

SAMHAJ is a source for education and support about mental health for South Asians in New Jersey and is a program of NAMINJ, a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by mental illness and their families. For more information, visit www.naminj.org/programs/samhaj/samhaj_news.html

SAALT seeks to raise community and public awareness about issues affecting South Asians. For more information, visit www.saalt.org.

[ BY DEBJANI]