violence directed at women for violating religious
and cultural norms have been isolated (Hogben
1991). The Ontario Human Rights Commission
produced a policy paper regarding female genital
mutilation (OHRC 1996). This paper indicated that
the policy was developed in response to suggestions
from key community contacts that female genital
mutilation was found among some immigrant com-
munities in Canada. Again, no concrete incidents
were cited to illustrate this. It is possible that these
practices exist to some degree in pockets of the Mus-
lim community coming from parts of Africa where
the practice remains common, but to say anything
more than this would be largely speculative.
Spousal abuse is a more clearly established form
of domestic violence of concern for Muslim women
in Canada. Research and literature about, and
community response to, spousal abuse in the Mus-
lim community has developed more than that on
any other area of domestic violence. Major Cana-
dian surveys of violence against women have found
that some form of spousal abuse is common
throughout Canadian society, but these surveys
have not produced religious or ethnic community
level specification (Johnson 2002). It is notable that
research and literature on spousal abuse lumps
Muslim women with national or ethnic groupings
intersecting with the Muslim community (South
Asian, Arab, Somali, and so forth) or with immi-
grant and refugee women in general (Bannerji
2002, Papp 1990, Moussa 2002, Schmidt 2000).
Only Azmi’s qualitative studies on wife abuse and
the welfare response to it in the Muslim community
in Toronto have focused attention on wife abuse
specifically in the Muslim community (1996, 1999).
It is not clear from the literature to what degree
Muslim women face spousal abuse in Canada. No
quantitative data exist that compare the presence
of spousal abuse found in countries of origin with
its presence in Canada, nor do quantitative data
exist to compare the presence of this form of
domestic violence with its presence in other com-
munities in Canada. At the very least it is clear that
spousal abuse of various types and degrees exists in
Muslim communities and that it is a recognized
issue of concern within both the Muslim commu-
nity and mainstream institutions.
Clearly the experience of spousal abuse among
Muslim women is similar in many regards to that of
spousal abuse in other mainly immigrant commu-
nities. Many immigrant Muslim women, like other
immigrant women, are particularly isolated and
vulnerable. Language barriers significantly impede
their awareness of Canadian legal and social
norms. They often lack extended family and com-114 domestic violence
munity support networks, and are often economi-
cally dependent on their spouses. This situation is
further complicated in situations where women
have been sponsored for immigration by their
spouses and for whom fear and threat of deporta-
tion is at least a perceived concern.
Also like other immigrant women, many Muslim
women face serious issues of shame and denial. The
role of wife and mother is a comparatively signifi-
cant one in the cultural and religious understanding
of many immigrant women and especially so for
Muslim women. The threat of marital and family
breakdown is particularly difficult to accept and as
a result many Muslim women are often reluctant to
report abuse unless it becomes particularly severe.
Along with immigration status issues, the experi-
ence of domestic violence for Muslim women in
Canada has been heavily influenced by a pervasive
and ongoing competition between normative
Islamic and mainstream Canadian ideological and
cultural outlooks. These competing ideological per-
spectives lead to varying visions of the nature of
spousal abuse and appropriate welfare responses to
them. Muslim religious community initiatives in
responding to wife abuse tend to view spousal
abuse as a product of religious and spiritual decline
and put considerable emphasis on the provision of
religious and spiritual counseling for both spouses,
and on the preservation of the family as a major
goal alongside issues of the safety of abused women.
In contrast, mainstream providers of services for
abused women tend to focus on unequal gender
relationships as the primary cause of spousal abuse
and emphasize the safety of abused women as the
sole and overriding goal (Azmi 1996, Valiante 1992).
Mistrust of the mainstream society’s initiatives
responding to spousal abuse has led religious sec-
tors of the Muslim community to develop alterna-
tive services that are perceived to better conform to
religious norms. In Greater Toronto, where the
Muslim community in Canada has experienced its
most significant institutional development, a num-
ber of services parallel to mainstream ones have
been developed by religious institutions and organ-
izations. Most significant in this regard was the
establishment in 1996 in Greater Toronto of the
Muslim Welfare Home for Needy Women and
Children. This 27-bed shelter was the first of its
kind in Canada to provide shelter for women flee-
ing abusive relationships. The shelter is open to all
women regardless of religious affiliation but re-
flects the need of the Muslim community to provide
shelter inspired by religious values.
The immigrant experience and the meeting of
Islamic religious perspectives with those of main-