describing the barriers

Bringing Violence With You

Women come to Canada from all parts of the world; here, they must deal with all the bewilderment and sense of displacement, often tempered by hope and better living conditions, faced by all immigrants. Like women who were born in Canada, immigrant women experience violence in this country; however, they may also bring experiences of violence from their country of origin. Each of these situations affects a woman's ability to learn.

What are some of the faces of violence that influence an immigrant woman's education or her ability to learn? Here are some often mentioned by women from many different parts of the world:

• loss of voice. Many women who come to Canada are well educated, literate women in their country of origin. When they arrive in Canada, they may find that they are no longer the articulate person they thought they were, even if they are fluent in English or French. For a woman who knows little or no English or French, the difficulty is that much greater. This loss of voice can be, and is, devastating. A woman may be thought stupid by others; she will be subjected to emotional stress and even violence because of the barriers created by language and the loss of her voice. Like other women who internalize the violence and lose self-esteem, she begins to doubt her ability and her self.

While the Canadian government does offer language training, it is inadequate on a number of levels. If a woman knows even a little English or French, she may not be eligible for training. If she does enter a program, she will not be given an opportunity to really learn the language and be comfortable with it before she is finished. A second problem is that the education and upgrading needs of men are given more attention by both the government and by the family. Typically, men take precedence over women.

Ethnic communities as well as families can reinforce these norms. These communities are extremely powerful and play a role in silencing women. They do not talk about women and women who dare to speak out, to seek an education in spite of community disapproval, can be ostracized.

• violence in the control of female children. In many cultures, a woman's sexuality is fixed to the family's honour. There is a great deal of pressure on girls and young women to behave in certain ways, for instance to marry early and to marry a man selected by her family. Pressure to marry early can and does work against a woman's ability to do well in school. This pressure and violence comes from the family and the community; some women speak of abuse from older women in their husband's family, especially a mother-in-law.

• men in the family and community try to maintain control over women. Even if a woman does manage, in spite of various governmental restrictions to enter a course or program, she will be under tremendous pressure to stay at home in order to pass "her culture" on to her children. If children do not do well, if they do not follow the cultural practices of their parent's country of origin, the mother is blamed, both by the family and by the community.