This study examines the process of identity negotiation of 15 Muslim women who resisted severe abuse by their husbands and extended family by becoming mentally ill and thereafter, divorcing. Content analysis of the interview narratives shows that these women were poor, married young, and endured years of battering, isolation, and silencing for the sake of family honor and children’s well-being. Entrapped within a web of sociocultural norms legitimizing wife beating, and abusive extended family relationships that annihilate their voice by branding them as maj’nuna/insane, these women explained that they were terrorized helpless victims fearing the stigma of being labeled insane and the resultant harm to their children. With the deterioration of their health, threat of annihilation, and imminent danger to themselves and their children, these women broke through the normative oppressive framework by becoming maj’nuna/mentally ill. Detached from the extended family and no longer caring to endorse a label that discredited what they said or did, these women overtly resisted by escaping to the family of origin and/or mental health clinic to reveal the abuse, divorce, and seek treatment. Severing all family ties, and now residing in public housing, these women felt safe to renegotiate a favorable identity and reclaim the right to live with dignity. Implications/recommendations: (1) The criminalization of battering and prosecution of batterers is not enough to deter when cultural norms sanction battering, (2) additional diagnostic categories are needed to identify the precursors of battering within the strategies of overt and covert resistance battered women adopt in collectivistic cultures such as mental and neurophysiological dysfunctions, and (3) it is necessary to transcend the individualistic model titling battered women within the false dichotomy of victimization or agency as it fails to reflect battered women’s experience in collectivistic cultures and their resistant strategies to abuse in the extended family.

中文翻译：

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走向疯狂：受虐穆斯林妇女重拾积极身份


本研究考察了 15 名穆斯林妇女的身份谈判过程，她们通过患上精神病来抵抗丈夫和大家庭的严重虐待，然后离婚。对采访叙述的内容分析显示，这些女性贫穷，早婚，为了家庭荣誉和孩子的福祉，忍受了多年的殴打、孤立和沉默。这些妇女被困在一个社会文化规范的网络中，使殴打妻子合法化，以及虐待性的大家庭关系，通过给她们贴上 maj'nuna/insane 的标签来扼杀她们的声音，这些妇女解释说，她们是被恐吓、无助的受害者，害怕被贴上疯子的标签的耻辱以及由此对她们的孩子造成的伤害。随着健康状况的恶化、毁灭的威胁以及对自己和孩子的迫在眉睫的危险，这些妇女突破了规范的压迫框架，成为 maj'nuna/精神病患者。这些女性脱离了大家庭，不再关心为诋毁她们的言行背书的标签，她们通过逃到原生家庭和/或心理健康诊所来公开抵抗，以揭露虐待、离婚和寻求治疗。切断了所有家庭纽带，现在住在公共住房中，这些妇女感到可以安全地重新谈判有利的身份并重新获得有尊严地生活的权利。 影响/建议：（1） 当文化规范认可殴打时，将殴打定为刑事犯罪和起诉施虐者不足以阻止，（2） 需要额外的诊断类别来识别受虐妇女在集体主义文化中采用的公开和隐蔽抵抗策略中殴打的前兆，例如精神和神经生理功能障碍，以及 （3） 有必要超越在受害或代理的错误二分法，因为它未能反映受虐妇女在集体主义文化中的经历以及她们在大家庭中对虐待的抵抗策略。