Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 3, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2018 | Page 23

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
the last few years, a few survival groups have begun to form. 9 Frequently, the focus
of these groups is on ex-home-school students indoctrinated with extremist views
or ex-fundamentalists but with a good deal of attention focused on Quiverfull in
particular. They are beginning to act to provide financial support to people seeking
to leave the Quiverfull movement. Perhaps most importantly, forums such as
Home-Schoolers Anonymous and No Longer Quivering seek to provide a new
form of community for those seeking to make a new life outside fundamentalist
communities (Wagley 2016).
While survivors acknowledge the choice of adult women to conform to
their practices as part of religious freedom, they speak out for those they see as
trapped by economic constraints or lack of knowledge. One example is Vyckie
Garrison who works to help women leave the Quiverfull movement. She was pressured
to have four more children after doctors advised against it. She eventually
left the community, divorced her husband, and started the website “No Longer
Quivering.” 10 In addition to exposing abuses in the Quiverfull movement, this site
hosts a support group for women leaving the community. 11 Thus, support groups
are often actively countering the beliefs they see as subjugating women and helping
women to shift their world view such that they do not believe that receiving
medical treatment during childbirth and practicing birth control of any kind are
acts against God.
Conclusion
A
comparison of indigenous women in Guatemala and Quiverfull women
in the United States demonstrates the complexity of women’s health security
in the context of communities that perceive a threat from the wider
society. A discussion of the two groups brings into focus the propensity for women
to be constrained by community, and how efforts to respect community values
can sometimes privilege dominant—frequently male—voices. Maya women
in Guatemala suffer much greater economic hardship than women living in the
United States. However, Quiverfull women are often born into or integrated into
the movement at a young age and lack any financial independence. Another commonality
is that both groups view outsiders as a potential threat. In the case of the
Maya, this means that NGOs have had to navigate cultural issues while trying to
improve women’s health. In the case of the Quiverfull, outside groups have kept
a distance as women’s health in that community has been seen in the context of
religious freedom and family values. Assistance for Quiverfull women has come
largely in the form of survival networks.
9 These groups include: Responsible Homeschooling, the Unboxing Project, No Longer Quivering,
and Recovering Grace.
10 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/.
11 See http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/nlq-support-group/.
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