Muslim Women's Shelter Provides Refuge, Support

December 1, 2009

Author: Jamie Tarabay

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120752667

As families come together over the holidays, the victims of domestic abuse are often sequestered in shelters — a situation that's especially difficult for Muslim women, because few facilities meet their cultural and religious needs.

At one home for Muslim women in Baltimore, women from different backgrounds recently gathered in the kitchen to prepare dinner together. Oil splattered on the stove, and Asma Hanif, the woman who runs the center, joked that the night's dinner would be the end of her.

"In Iraq they don't have high cholesterol?" she asks a Kurdish woman standing beside her. "This is going to kill us."

The Kurdish woman — whose name is being withheld to protect her safety — laughed. "No, no, it's OK," she said. Wearing makeup and fitted jeans, the woman said the center is now her home and she would "never" go back.

"Right now, I'm really happy. Really happy," she told the group.

The woman said her marriage was so bad — the beatings from her husband were so severe — that she had no choice but to get out, even if it meant leaving her three children behind.