When to W
Author: Janine Muhammad
In this article, I want to take a more serious tone for our Nura readers. According to the National Coalition
Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) (n.d.), 1 in 3 women have experienced some form of physical violence
by an intimate partner. In addition, 1 in 4 women have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate
partner in their lifetime. I know you don’t think you are a victim. You don’t think so because of the image
that domestic violence has in your mind. It’s the image of a woman with a black eye. Yes, that is her! But just
because you do not have a black eye does not mean that you have not been or you are not being victimized.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE (DV) REALLY IS?
T
he United States Department of Justice
(2016) defines domestic violence as
a pattern of abusive behavior in any
relationship that is used by one partner to gain or
maintain power and control over another intimate
partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual,
emotional, economic, or psychological actions or
threats that influence another person. This includes
any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate,
isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame,
hurt, injure, or wound someone.
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Summer 2017 | NURAMagazine.com
Many victims say, “There were no signs.” I say, we
did not see the signs. Victims get ridiculed by people
who want to know, why couldn’t she see he was
abusive? There is a reason for that. In my practice
as a clinician, I have yet to come across one woman
who has not 1- experienced a form of sexual
abuse, most often molestation by a family member,
2- experienced physical violence by an intimate
partner. To the ladies in my domestic violence
therapy group, I always offer the following scenario: