Abuse Often Follows Afghans to America

When she arrived in New York from Afghanistan last year to join her husband, an Afghan-American she had married in Kabul, Nadia K. was thrilled at the prospect of her new American life.

But soon after she moved in with him and his family in Flushing, Queens, she said, they started treating her like a servant. Her husband revealed that he loved another woman. When Nadia complained, her sister-in-law beat her with the consent of the husband, who often looked on, smiling.

“I can’t even remember how many times I got black eyes,” recalled Nadia, 22, who is so fearful that she asked that her last name not be published. “I didn’t know I could call the police.”

She had thought this kind of abuse was a part of Afghan life she had left behind.

In Afghanistan, a decade after the overthrow of the Taliban and the rise of an influential women’s rights movement, the violent subjugation of women remains broadly accepted. In recent weeks, the Afghan government has sharply criticized the country’s shelters for battered women and moved to take control of them.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/nyregion/28abuse.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

for the abuse in that study.

I don't think it was like some studies in the US where someone used an insensitive expression or told a dirty joke in front of you.