Acknowledgement and better understanding of the cultural differences between service providers and immigrant survivors of D/IPV would go a long way to improve trust and break down barriers in communication. Revision of the New Brunswick Woman Abuse Protocols will highlight the perspectives of immigrant women. Long-term and increased funding for D/IPV and settlement public services will ensure that women-centered programming and professional translation services are available and improved collaboration takes place.

Intimate partner violence is a complex, fear-inducing reality for large numbers of women throughout the world. When violence exists in a relationship, safety is compromised, shame abounds, and peace evaporates. Violence is learned behavior, and it flourishes most when it is ignored, minimized, or misunderstood. When violence strikes the homes of deeply religious women, they are more vulnerable. They are more likely to believe that their abusive partners can, and will, change. They are less likely to leave a violent home, temporarily or forever. They are often reluctant to seek outside sources of assistance. They are frequently disappointed by the response of the religious leader to their call for help. This book navigates the relatively unchartered waters of intimate partner violence in families of deep faith. The program of research on which it is based spans more than 25 years and includes a wide variety of specific studies involving religious leaders; congregations; battered women; men in batterer intervention programs; and the army of workers who assist families impacted by abuse, including criminal justice workers, therapeutic staff, advocacy workers, and religious leaders. The book provides a rich and colorful portrayal of the intersection of intimate partner violence and religious beliefs and practices that inform and interweave throughout daily life, enabling the examination and evaluation of the ways in which religion both augments and thwarts the journey toward justice, accountability, healing, and wholeness for women and men caught in the web of intimate partner violence.

This article details the strengths and vulnerabilities that Christian and Muslim immigrant women bring to situations of domestic violence in the Canadian Maritimes. An intersectional theoretical framework grounds the analysis of qualitative data collected from 89 Christian and Muslim women from 27 countries of origin who arrived in the region ten years prior to the field work. Their strengths include high levels of education, experiences of overcoming adversity, the ability to act strategically, and the use of social networks, while factors such as increased dependence on husbands, transnational family situations, responsibilities for family unity, and a lack of knowledge about local services are vulnerabilities. The findings show that Orthodox and Catholic Christians, Muslim women with young children, immigrant women employed full-time immediately upon arrival, and wives whose immigration is sponsored by their husbands lack access to important social support networks.

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