The Power of Bipartisan Mobilization: The Success of Tunisia’s Feminist Movement During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The Tunisian government, which is deeply divided, especially along ideological lines, responded to growing concerns over increased violence against women during the Coronavirus pandemic by establishing a new domestic violence shelter and 24/7 hotline. This article asks: Why did the state respond to gender-based violence(gbv) concerns during the Coronavirus pandemic in Tunisia, despite ideological and political divisions? We argue that the state addressed some concerns around violence during the pandemic because combatting gbv has bipartisan support in Tunisia. Tunisian Islamist and secularist women’s rights organizations succeeded in building a bipartisan coalition of support on this issue because they worked either together in a short-lived coalition or in tandem with similar goals over the past decade during the democratic transition in Tunisia. Building on the existing coalition literature, we show that feminist coalition formation before a pandemic has implications for feminists’ success in times of crisis.

The Hidden Center in Domestic Violence Shelter Fields of Power A Structural Analysis of Primary Source Agents Situated Within the ‘Domestic Violence Shelter’ Field through the Lens of Bourdieu’s Center-Periphery Axis.

This paper is an exploratory study that uses Bourdieu’s ‘Field of Power’ theory to contextualize and place the expressed and hidden centers of power within the domestic violence shelter system, as a function of direct feedback from agents within that system. Data for the study was collected from Reddit, a popular ‘chat-room’ style forum for a variety of social and technical issues. Direct feedback about domestic violence shelter experiences from all participants in that ecosystem was coded based on agent/power dynamics. Results from the study indicate that certain actors within the domestic violence shelter system, namely abusers represent a hidden center of power.

Children in domestic violence shelters: Does the feminist perspective collapse?

Summary Even though an extensive body of literature on children has swept the field of domestic violence in the last 30 years, little is known about how domestic violence shelter workers understand children’s situations and how they intervene with them. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature, and presents the results of a study conducted with 48 advocates in the province of Québec (Canada). Findings The data suggest that most of the participants adopt a child-centred perspective and consider the children in their own right during their stay. The accounts of the participants’ practices also reveal that they perceive children as being vulnerable and at-risk. With a moderate emphasis on vulnerability and risk, the participants tend to support the children alongside their mothers, while associating potential risks with the behaviour of the perpetrator of domestic violence. However, with a strong focus on vulnerability and risk, participants tend to cast aside the perpetrators’ behaviour and monitor the women-as-mothers during their stay while associating potential risk with their [in]actions under the circumstances. This can lead to mother-blaming, surveillance and more authoritarian interactions. Applications The understanding of children living with domestic violence needs to remain rooted in a feminist analysis of violence against women in order to avoid some of the issues highlighted in the article. Furthermore, studies that seek to shed light on best social work practices when working with children in alliance with their mothers from a feminist perspective are crucially needed.

Engaging Communities through an Art Program at a Domestic Violence Shelter

This chapter is a case study, written from the perspective of a visual artist, designer, and educator, reflecting on a five-year volunteer initiative of developing, leading, and funding an art program at a domestic violence shelter for battered women and adolescent girls who experienced sexual violence. One purpose of this chapter is to provide information about establishing art programs that can be sustained by the institutions in which they are introduced. This chapter discusses the following aspects: 1) breaking the ice and establishing rapport; 2) training and supervising staff and student volunteers; 3) fund-raising, grant writing, and seeking support both within and outside the agency; 4) partnering with organizations or community groups to set up art exhibitions; 5) partnering with artists and writers to print and distribute an educational publication; and 6) developing research with vulnerable populations serviced by the agency.

The Experiences of Domestic Violence Shelter Workers and Their Perceptions of Shelter Services: A Preliminary Study

With domestic violence shelters faced with the persistent and arduous challenge of intimate partner violence, using an online survey, we explored the experiences of 98 shelter workers, including their perceptions of shelter services. Findings revealed that a majority of respondents (94%) indicated that through their work, they have had a positive influence on shelter residents. Moreover, 68% agreed that shelters are successful with providing services that will aid women in becoming self-sufficient, and 94% would like to see shelters have a greater impact on helping women find the pathway to economic independence. Thirty-six and 39% of participants, respectively, endorsed items about compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, and slightly more than half (51%) were frustrated by their work. Challenges in the provision of services included lack of funding, housing, and mental health and communal living issues. Incorporation of wellness efforts and self-care practices are encouraged in order for shelter workers to reduce susceptibility to compassion fatigue and secondary trauma.

Dialogue in Peace Education Theory and Practice1

This article reports a case study of a peace educator (Haley), an interventions program coordinator for a domestic violence shelter and rape crisis center, reaching thousands of youth in the Midwestern United States. The findings of the study raise implications for employing dialogue as a pedagogy for peace in formal schooling and infusing peace education throughout the school curriculum. In particular, the findings offer insights about the attributes of the peace educators who are able to implement dialogue effectively in their classrooms, and the vital characteristics necessary in the formal school setting to employ Freirean dialogue.

Border threads : ethnographic tales of escape, agency, and violence in a shelter in Pakistan

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI--COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study highlights the theoretical usefulness of viewing domestic violence shelters through the conceptual framework of border-crossing and borders. Utilizing feminist ethnography as a research method to explore the socio-cultural aspects of a domestic violence shelter in Pakistan, it asks the following questions: How do survivors of domestic violence (women) reach the shelter? How does the shelter enable women who have suffered domestic abuse to engage in descriptions that counter outside efforts to silence them? How does shelter as a space of protection both enable social change and reproduce structures of domination? Based on ethnographic observations and interviews with 45 shelter residents, shelter staff, and feminist scholars, this study demonstrates that survivors of domestic violence, specifically women belonging to a lower socio-economic demographic, construct and expend heroic forms of agency in formulating specific escape trajectories and are in effect border-crossers. Importantly, it found that shelter residents re-construct themselves through narratives of violence made possible through temporary pockets of articulation. Absence of supportive socio-political and economic structures that may enable shelter residents to embark on emancipatory exit trajectories converts the agency utilized to escape violent homes into forms that are excessive.

Intimate Partner Violence Survivors’ Housing Needs and Preferences: A Brief Report

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization contributes to homelessness and housing insecurity for survivors and their children. Despite growing interest in expanding strategies for addressing the housing needs of survivors, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding survivors’ preferences and recommendations. To begin to address knowledge gaps, this article reports findings from a qualitative study examining the housing needs of IPV survivors and survivors’ preferences and recommendations for addressing their housing needs. In-depth interviews with 19 adult IPV survivors in a southeastern community determined three key themes: (a) IPV housing needs and challenges, (b) domestic violence shelter strengths and concerns, and (c) recommendations for addressing survivors’ housing needs. The findings highlight the need for flexibility and variability in housing services as opposed to a one-size-fits-all strategy, and stress the importance of centering the voices of survivors as the field explores new housing directions.

The Process of Empowerment Reflected in Women's Narratives of Their Stay in a Domestic Violence Shelter

Domestic violence shelters can provide services that are key to ending intimate partner violence. Yet, little is known about the process through which a stay in shelter increases women's ability to move toward the lives they want. The construct of empowerment has been used to gauge the effectiveness of intimate partner violence interventions and has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes. The present qualitative study analyzed nine in-depth interviews with women in domestic violence shelters to explore processes that occurred within the shelter stay that enhanced their sense of empowerment. A narrative methodology that situates personal stories within the broader social context was used. Four interrelated empowerment storylines were identified and involved self-reflection, gaining clarity, acquiring knowledge, and building community. Implications of these processes for shelter services are discussed.

Empowering Women Survivors of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pervasive public health problem with high societal costs. Domestic violence shelters provide services to women and their children to support their journey away from violence. Music therapy in shelters can be a vehicle of empowerment for these women. In this clinical portrait, I share my experience as a music therapist in a domestic violence shelter, incorporating an overview of the services and theoretical framework we used, reflecting on the function that music may have in this situation, and illustrating it with the case of one of the women that I was honored to meet.