Going Insane: Battered Muslim Women Reclaim a Positive Identity

Abstract

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.

Keywords

battered Muslim women resistance insanity and identity negotiation

The goal of this research is to find out the extent Muslim women who escaped severe abuse by husbands and extended family members by becoming mentally ill and thereafter, divorcing were able to make sense of their experience and reconstruct a favorable identity that was stained as maj’nuna/insane.¹ Social constructionists (Berger & Luckman, 1967), and symbolic interactionists (Blumer, 1969; Mead, 1934) explain that identities do not evolve in a vacuum. They are constructed in interaction with others. Significant others (Holstein & Gubrium, 2000) and generalized others (Mead, 1934) reflect onto us who we are in a looking-glass self (Gergen & Gergen, 1997; Holstein & Gubrium, 2000). Identity construction is also influenced by the norms of the ethnic/cultural group to which we belong, our socioeconomic position, and the roles we must fulfill (Gubrium & Holstein, 2001).

Muslim women in the Middle East and Israel belong to a traditional patriarchal collectivist culture that places them at the lowest rung of the extended family hierarchy (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996; Haj-Yahia, 2002). Regardless of their socioeconomic position and education, women must first submit to their father’s authority and, following marriage, to their husband and his extended family. Marriages in traditional Muslim families are often negotiated and arranged by family elders (Rabin, Markus, & Voghera, 1999). Women from low socioeconomic status and religious backgrounds marry young, soon after puberty, through prearranged marriages and once married live with the extended family of the husband (Barakat, 1993). Women are promised protection and support of the extended family when they remain hidden and abide by the norms of obedience, modesty, and family reputation and honor (Aboulhassan and Brumley, 2019). Deviation from these norms often results in punishment, abuse, and ostracism (Liang et al., 2005; Waller et al., 2023). Abuse includes physical and emotional violence by the husband and other extended family members, confinement and isolation, threats of divorce and taking the children, and branding them maj’nuna/insane.

Branding women “maj’nuna/insane” pervades the discourse of the extended Muslim family’s silencing and discrediting the voice of “out of control” women who fail to remain submissive and fulfill their roles (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996; Barakat, 1993). Studies conducted in Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and U.S. show that battered Muslim women are entrapped within patriarchal collectivistic beliefs and sociocultural norms that shape gender role expectations and attitudes which legitimize the beating of rebellious women (Ayyub, 2000; Gharaibeh, & Oweis, 2009; Oweis et al., 2009); Hassouneh-Phillips, 2001). Hence, when considering battered Muslim women’s identity construction special attention must be given to significant others in the extended family, that is, husbands and in-laws and the generalized other-what others say since they heavily influence these women’s sense of self and view of reality (Olson, 2004). Extended family members often ally with the abuser to deny the abuse and blame the victim while discrediting her protest (Waller et al., 2023). Societal norms and expectations place immense pressure on women to keep silent rather than reveal the abuse and seek assistance from formal and informal sources. This expectation is to avoid destroying family reputation (Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Hulley et al., 2023; Ne’eman-Haviv & Shafran, 2023). Additionally, the lack of financial means, family support, and fear of losing their children through divorce often result in enduring years of abuse in silence (Gharaibeh, & Oweis, 2009; Hassouneh-Phillips, 2001). Battered Muslim women who have also been socialized to believe that rebellious women deserve to be beaten when they do not fulfill their role obediently (Haj-Yahia, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c) will often develop negative attitudes toward self, feelings of shame, fear of ostracism, losing self-respect, and isolation (Gharaibeh & Al-Ma’aitah, 2002; Liang et al., 2005).

Despite the laws criminalizing battering, court restraining orders, and prosecution of batterers in Israel Yassour-Yassour-Borochowitz (2016), Muslim women seldom report the abuse to the police or social services. Furthermore, the batterers are seldom deterred by formal legal means. Their allegiance to Muslim norms and collectivistic traditions that sanction beating, blame women for deserving to be beaten, and fail to condemn the batterer prevail (Schiller & Manikas, 1987). Studies conducted in patriarchal collectivist Muslim societies in Israel, the Middle East, and the U.S. show that a disproportional number of Muslim women are subjected to abuse in the extended family (Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Hassouneh-Phillips, 2003; Hulley et al., 2023). Focusing on Muslim women in Israel, Daoud et al.’s (2020) survey on intimate partner violence (IPV) among immigrant, nonimmigrant, and Arab women indicated that significantly higher rate of Arab women reporting IPV. Of the women surveyed, 67% of Muslim women as opposed to 30% of Jewish immigrants, and 27% of nonimmigrant women reported IPV. In a previous study, Haj-Yahia found that 50% of the Muslim women surveyed in Israel and the West Bank had experienced physical abuse, 52% verbal abuse, 22% controlling behavior, 45% financial control, and 37% sexual abuse. Main predictors of family violence included being married at a young age, which is less than 24 years of age, being from a religious, traditional family, and lack of financial means (Daoud et al., 2020). Cross-culturally, poverty, lack of education, and patriarchal norms increased the likelihood of battering (Gilman, 2020) while decreasing the likelihood of reporting abuse to the police (Stevens, 2021) or seeking help from both informal and formal sources (Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Hulley et al., 2023; Ne’eman-Haviv & Shafran, 2023).

Individualistic cultures generally espouse the ideology of autonomy, individual agency, and personal responsibility. This leads to a greater expectation that battered women have the liberty to decide whether to leave or stay in a battering relationship (Berns, 2004). Battered women who fail to leave may be regarded as passive victims, accountable for their situation (Mahoney, 1994). In contrast, women who leave abusive relationships are often celebrated as survivors who take charge of their destiny by exercising agency (Dunn, 2005; Profitt, 1996). Research nevertheless shows that the dichotomy of victim or survivor fails to reflect battered women’s experience in collectivistic cultures as it ignores the various unconventional resistant strategies these women use to protect themselves and their children.

Within a larger structural and cultural context with multiple forms of oppression that shape these women’s experience, these women exercise agency bottom up (Crenshaw, 1994; Hulley et al., 2023; Kanuha, 1996; Schneider, 1993). Hassouneh-Phillips (2003) based on her research with battered Muslim women in the United States, concluded that enduring the abuse and using various coping strategies may be common to all battered women cross-culturally; however, the length of time that Muslim women endure abusive relationships in silence is far longer due to the collectivistic nature of their community. Prolonged silent endurance was related to the norms of obedience to one’s husband and his family, and to sacrificing personal ambitions and desires for the well-being of the children and the reputation of the family (Barakat, 1993; Haj Yahia, 1998a, 1998b, 2004). Women who dared protesting were repeatedly reminded to be silent or be branded crazy-maj’nuna (Abu-Baker, 2003; Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996, 1998, 2000; Haj-Yahia, 2002, 2004; Ayyub, 2000). Silencing their needs and desires, fearing to be labeled maj’nuna/insane, these women often experience a negation of self and their suffering (Hassouneh-Phillips, 2003). Studies conducted across cultures in general (Campbell, 2002; Dillon et al., 2013; Karakurt et al., 2014) and Muslim collectivist cultures in particular (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996, 1998, 2000; Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Haj-Yahia, 2002) show the adverse long-term consequences of battering on women health and well-being. Battered women are at high risk of developing chronic pain, gastrointestinal and neurofunctional disorders, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder if not suicide. In Muslim societies depression, suicidal thoughts, guilt, shame, and anxiety/depressive symptoms were found to cluster around physical and neurofunctional symptoms since mental health symptoms are attributed to sinners who lack faith in Allah (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996, 1998, 2000; Cohen & Savaya, 1997; Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009). Research conducted in Western cultures mentioned the common characteristics battered women exhibit when they leave the abusive relationship. Some of them disengage and let go of societal expectations of being a good mother and spouse responsible for “fixing” the relationship (Olson, 2001). They thus can come to believe in their right to reclaim their sense of self (Olson, 2001; Rosen & Stith, 1997). In collectivistic Muslim cultures, battered women who endure years of abuse by extended family members (Cohen & Savaya, 1997; Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Hulley et al., 2023; Ne’eman-Haviv & Shafran, 2023) will escape only under the threat of psychological, and physical annihilation (Hassouneh-Phillips (2003). Other eminent scholars, a century ago, have emphasized that under certain personal life circumstances, such as social rejection, stigma, and poverty, attachment to social norms and significant others may weaken or become nonexistent (Durkheim, 1897), and ultimately result in alienation from core values ( Shils, 1975). In a state of anomie (Durkheim, 1897) and meaninglessness individuals may transcend the limits of the normative and deviate, in the profiles in courage under study become mentally ill. This qualitative study aims to examine the extent to which Muslim women who escaped the physical and emotional abuse by becoming mentally ill and thereafter divorcing were able to reconstruct their autobiography and negotiate a favorable identity that had been stained as maj’nuna/insane.

Method

Sample Recruitment

A purposive sample of 15 severely abused Muslim women was recruited from Enosh, one of the mental health community centers for Arab women in Northern Israel. Recruitment was performed through the informant method, with the main informants being two Muslim graduate female students in my classes who were engaged in social activities with these women in one of the Enosh community centers.

Participants’ Background

All the participants came from traditional religious families of low socioeconomic status. The participants had at most 9 years of education and were removed from school when they were 16 years old to work and thereafter get married through a prearranged marriage. Once married, they were moved from their family of origin to the extended family of the husband and lived above their in-laws as commonly practiced. All these women were mothers of three to five children. After 10 to 15 years of emotional and physical abuse and progressive health deterioration, these women were taken by the extended family to a psychiatrist who diagnosed depression, anxiety, and/or neurofunctional disorders and hospitalized them for 1 to 3 months in the mental health clinic. At the time the study was conducted in 2021, the participants were between 30 and 55 years of age, had obtained a divorce, and lived in public housing. They came daily to the mental health community center to receive support from friends and help from social workers and engage in social activities. In the words of Fatima “In Enosh I feel safe. I find good people and I can talk to them. There I have some friends. When I am in distress I can talk to the social worker. She supports and encourages me.”

Ethics

This study was approved by the IRB of Western Galilee College and permission to conduct the study was obtained from Enosh director and participants after we explained the goal of the study as wanting to listen to these women’s life stories. Consent to be interviewed was obtained by reading in simple words to the participants the consent form in Arabic and/or Hebrew. Anonymity was guaranteed by specifying that any identifying information such as names and locations would be erased and replaced by pseudonyms. It was furthermore specified that no pressure would be applied on the participants if they refused to answer a question or wanted to stop the interview. Permission to record the interviewees was obtained with the guarantee that once transcribed, all the recordings would be erased.

Instrument

The most appropriate research tool to find out about the common experience of severely abused Muslim women was the in-depth interview. The interview included an interview guide to guarantee that the same topics would be covered with all the participants. Some of the topics included in the guide addressed their relationship with their parents, husband, and in-laws, the various form of control and abuse to which they had been subjected by parents, husbands, and other extended family members, how they reconstructed their identity when battered, silenced, confined in the home, and discredited as maj’nuna/insane, their paths of resistance to abuse, the progression of their health deterioration, and dangers posed to their life and to that of their children. Becoming mentally ill and escaping to family of origin to the mental health clinic, disengaging from the norms and family ties, endorsing the discrediting label of ma’jnuna, denouncing the abuse, divorcing, and recreating a favorable identity was addressed. Questions about background information, to be unobtrusive were dispersed throughout the interview.

Procedure

Interviews were conducted in Arabic mixed with Hebrew, thus allowing the research participants to express their thoughts and feelings in the medium of their choice. Ease and rapport were established with the interviewers who were two Muslim female students the participants knew and had engaged with in social activities. The interviewers had listened to their life stories when working in Enosh for more than a year. The main researcher, a college professor born in Egypt and fluent in Arabic, participated in seven of the interviews to guide the interviewers and probe the interviewees. The interviews were privately conducted in a room of the Enosh Center and lasted approximately 1 hr. They started as an informal conversation with the opening sentence “Do you know women who have been called maj’nuna/insane? Please tell me your story.” These prompts in the informal interactive context of Enosh with interviewers they knew who showed genuine interest empowered these women to account for the stigma of maj’nuna/insane that had silenced them. They were free to recount their narratives to renegotiate a favorable identity. Maximum flexibility was also given to the interviewer who could, throughout the narrative, adopt a more focused, open-ended interviewing style when using prompts such as “Could you please tell me more?” “What do you mean?” or “Could you please give examples?” These follow-up prompts enabled the interviewees to clarify their feelings and thoughts.

Data Analysis

Each one of the interviews was transcribed in Hebrew following the recording to allow the interviewer to note the mood and nonverbal expression of the interviewee at the time of the interview. All transcripts were thereafter translated into English read and re-read several times. To verify the reliability of the translation, we asked an English professor native to Israel to translate back into Hebrew for 20% of the interviews. We used the constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Strauss & Corbin 1990). to look for similarities and differences and inductively draw themes and subthemes from the participants’ narratives.

We adopted a constructivist approach (Quosh & Gergen, 2008) that emphasizes meaning making of autobiographical memories and focuses on the way these women gave meaning in retrospect to the abuse, their silence and silencing, the progressive deterioration of their health, and the points in their life trajectory in which they redefined themselves and their experience (Holland & Kensinger, 2010; Quosh & Gergen, 2008). Consequently, the questions of objectivity and fact validation do not arise in this study (Brunner, 2004; Denzin, 1997; Holsti, 1969).

As previously stressed, the main researcher analyzing the interview narratives spoke Arabic, lived in Northern Galilee, and had conducted several studies with battered women from various socioeconomic statuses and ethnic groups (Druze, Muslim. and Jewish) to find out their various paths of resistance to physical and emotional abuse. By bringing into the foreground Muslim traditions and triangulating the findings of the present study with the existing literature, we increased the validity of the participants’ intersubjective experience. Furthermore, by extensively quoting the participants, the researchers gave the opportunity to the readers to understand in their own words and from their own perspective Muslim women’s experience of abuse, control, and resistance in the process of identity reconstruction (Patton, 2002).

Results

Themes and subthemes derived from the narratives included clarifying the context in which Arab women are called maj’nuna/insane, evoking memories of abuse in the family of origin (violence, being forced to leave school usually for prearranged marriages), and then abuse in the extended family (battered, silenced as maj’nuna/insane, and confined to the home), and the resultant construction of self as reflected by abusive others in the looking-glass self. The deterioration of health and the dangers posed to their children, becoming maj’nuna/mentally ill, escaping to denounce the abuse, divorce, and healing, thereafter renegotiating a positive identity.

Labeling Women Maj’nuna/Insane

These women explained that the pejorative label maj’nuna/insane was often attached to women who protested abuse to deny them a voice,

Many times, women are called maj’nuna/insane, and I am one of them. They call them maj’nuna/insane to shut them up. Battered women often keep silent because they tell them that they are insane (Fouza 50)

I have been one of the many women called maj’nuna/insane, and one of the many women who was battered. (Amina 47)

Memories of Abuse and Coercion in the Family of Origin

Some of these women reported painful childhood memories. They remember parents who did not show any affection and used beating and the label maj’nuna/insane to punish them.

I never felt loved or tenderness. I did not feel that they were my parents. My father treated me like a maj’nuna/ insane. My mother would beat me up. They always punished me and put me down. I suffered in silence and cried between me and myself. (Fatima)

Similarly, Asia and Nur recounted,

My father never showed love or warmth. I was not close to him and did not share anything with him. He was abusive and violent. He would punish us and beat us up all the time with or without reason. When he angry he would explode, break things and beat my mother up, like insane. (Asia, 52)

I was a battered child. Since I was a child, my father would beat me up. I always believed that he hated me. I could see hate in his eyes. (Nur 35)

The interviewees also recounted that after completing eighth or ninth grade the interviewees’ fathers forced them to leave school and marry someone they barely knew: a cousin, neighbor, grocery store owner, or a friend’s son. Nur married at 15 years of age and divorced at 32. She told us in a voice filled with sadness and almost crying that she was then a child, but no one cared about her desires,

My father forced me, out of personal interest, to get married to one of his relatives who was five years older than me. I was a child. I was not ready to get married. I was myself a child playing with dolls, I wanted to live my childhood, but this also was taken from me. (Nur, 35 years old)

Similarly, Fouza reported that her prearranged marriage was not based on love, but on violence.

I got married through an arranged marriage. I never felt love or warmth toward him. He was also violent. He would beat me up and call me maj’nuna/insane. He tried to control me. (Fouza, 50)

Memories of Abuse in the Extended Family

Under Their Husband Control

The interviewees recounted that once married they were under the total control of their husband out of respect for him. In their own words,

He decided everything at home and outside the home. He controlled me and forced me to do things I did not want to do, especially in sex. I do not like having sex. Sex scares me and this made my husband terribly angry. (Nur)

Asala reported that she obeyed her spouse’s commands just as she had obeyed her abusive father’s, with total submission without saying a word,

He would tell me what to do, where we go, what yes, what no! I always was silent. I did what he said. I was used to it since childhood. I never had a word. I never ran away from him. I did not feel that my life was in danger because I was already used to it. (Asala)

Acute Battering

Yeba talked about the acute battering when her husband would lose control, explode, and become violent,

He would hurt me physically and mentally. I tried to resist him, but I felt my life was in danger; especially when he became abusive and could no longer control himself. Our fights are not related to anything special. (Yeba)

Enduring in Silence for the Sake of the Children

Some of these women accounted for the years of violence and silent endurance for the sake of the children who needed a father. In the words of Rena

In the beginning I did not resist or confront him. I was scared and I would think “He is my husband, my cousin, how is it possible?” I thought I needed him because he was their father. I did not want my children to grow up without their father. (Rena)

Nur, 39, explained that she had remained silent for many years to protect the children who were also beaten by her husband and in-laws,

I was helpless. I was scared about what would happen to the children. His parents would also beat the children. I was scared to let them play downstairs.

Constructing Self

Under the domination of their spouse and in-laws, silenced as maj’nuna/insane, beaten, and witnessing the harm caused to their children, these women felt helpless with no means and no one to turn to. In their own words,

They were putting my children against me by telling them that I was sick, mentally disturbed, and maj’nuna/insane. I wanted them to stay with me. This is why I remained silent. (Nur, 39)

I kept silent and never talked to others about that. I would keep silent when he exploded on me. I did not know what to do or who to turn to. I was just helpless in front of him. I was under his control. I do not understand why I did not get a divorce. (Amira)

Health Deterioration

Enduring years of battering and emotional abuse, discredited as maj’nuna/insane and good for nothing these women witnessed the progressive deterioration of their physical and mental health.

He told me I was maj’nuna/insane; I was good for nothing and valueless. In other words, he humiliated me. In the end I broke down and something was silenced inside of me. (Sabiya)

He drove me insane and often called me maj’nuna! When we would fight, he would always accuse me of being maj’nuna! This is why I became like that. (Yeba, 57 years)

Covert Resistance: Stopping Performing Household Tasks

Exhausted and depressed, these women stop performing household chores for husbands and extended family. These women were perceived as rebellious for failing to fulfill their role, which resulted in beating and blaming them for malingering. In the words of the interviewees

When I was sad or depressed, he would get madder, break objects, beat me up and abuse me and my children. (Asala)

When I was crying, he would tell me that I am exaggerating, and when I was depressed, he would tell me that this was the proof that I am maj’nuna. (Nur)

Overt Resistance to Abuse

At this point in their life trajectory, these women overtly resisted violence and suffering by attempting suicide, fainting, and exhibiting other neurofunctional disorders. In the words of Nur,

They [father, husband, and in-laws] constantly called me manna/insane. All these events were hard on my soul. I really went maj’nuna/mentally ill, and I tried to kill myself several times in different ways. I cut my veins, and swallowed pills. All this to break my silence and stop suffering. (Nur)

Asia who had developed neurological dysfunction after years of abuse and silencing reported,

I did not talk about what I felt inside. I preferred to keep silent hoping I would get better, but I didn’t. I kept on fainting, was out of breath, and had other body problems. This is when the doctor sent me to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist said that my panic and anxiety were expressed in different parts of my body. (Asia)

The Fear of the Stigma-Ma’jnuna/Mentally Ill

Several of the interviewees reported refusing, despite the severe deterioration of their mental health, to go to or remain in a mental health clinic or seek treatment for fear of being labeled maj’nuna/mentally ill, which carried the connotation of being possessed by a demon.

I did not go to the hospital or to treatment because I was scared to be called maj’nuna/mentally ill! My husband always called me maj’nuna/mentally ill! Going to the hospital or treatment would be for him the proof that I was I fact maj’nuna/mentally ill. (Lia)

Nur who had attempted several times suicide explained: “I was hospitalized, but I refused to stay because I was scared that they say that I am maj’nuna/mentally ill!” The official diagnosis of mental illness increased the pejorative labels staining these women’s identities. To the stigma of maj’nuna/insane was added the stigma of mental illness, which was attributed to being a sinner who lacked faith in God. The interviewees reported blame and shame for mental health issues and being accused of bringing themselves and others bad luck. In their own words,

All the family was blaming me for everything bad that was happening to them or around them. They would say that it is because I am maj’nuna/mentally ill and sick that everything was happening to them. (Farouz)

I was scared of my disease which was suddenly overpowering me. My family and the neighbors were blaming me for what was happening to me. They would tell me that I brought my disease onto myself and that I was the only one responsible for it. (Asala)

Breaking the Silence Under Imminent Danger

Blamed for being mentally ill, and on the verge of losing their life, and/or that of their children, these women openly resisted the abuse. Some of the women escaped to their familes of origin to break the silence and reveal the abuse. Looking backward, Rosanne remembered the nightmare she endured in silence while pretending that everything was Okay,

The illness broke because I kept everything inside and did not share with anyone. I tried to behave as if everything was okay. Pretending made things more difficult for me. I suffered a lot alone. He hurt me until I felt that my life was in danger. At this point, I decided to run away and tell my mother. I never went back to him. They helped me to get a divorce. I started treatment with medicines and mental discussions. My condition improved (Rosanne)

When he crossed all the limits and started harming the children this is when I shared with my family and my neighbors. (Rena)

Only two women that we interviewed approached agents of formal social control. One of them, Amira, called the police when she feared that the lives of her children were in danger.

The fact that he was also hurting the children was affecting me. I did not want to live with constant fear that he would kill or seriously harm us. After the last fight I called the police and that was the end of the story. (Amira)

The other interviewee Celine, a Bedouin woman originally from southern Israel, reported her husband to social services for the sexual abuse he inflicted on the children. She mentioned that her in-laws to whom she had at first talked about the abuse had ignored her pleas to stop the abuser. This is when she became mentally ill, broke the norm of silence, and contacted social services,

I was too submissive. I could not confront him. I could not do anything except watch him sexually abuse my children and keep silent. Even when my in-laws knew that my husband was beating me and abusing my children, they did nothing to stop him. They just ignored what was happening to us. (Celine)

Endorsing the Label Maj’nuna and Fighting Back

Rejecting the norms that had oppressed them and commanded their silence, and no longer fearing to endorse the stigma of maj’nuna/mentally ill, these women resisted the abuse and fought back. Amira who had been hospitalized three times in the mental health clinic by the time she was 30 years of age reported that even beating could no longer stop her,

In the beginning I kept silent. But after that I no longer cared. I was tired from all that was happening. I started to resist and vent my anger and show my feelings. He tried to shut me up by beating me more-but it didn’t work. (Amira)

Sabiya also remembered how she had become “the worst maj’nuna” extended family members had ever wanted her to be,

In the beginning they kept me silent, and I would not talk. I stayed by myself, but then I burst out and couldn’t keep silent anymore! I became maj’nuna, the worst maj’nuna they wanted me to be. (Sabiya)

Taking Charge of Oneself: Divorcing, Seeking Treatment, and Healing

For these women divorcing and healing went together. Once her health deteriorated Yasmin realized that her husband would never change. She divorced him and took care of herself.

He hurt me mentally and physically many times. I never felt that my life was in danger, but it seriously affected my mental health. I decided to divorce after I several times gave him the opportunity to change. I continue psychological treatment and since my divorce I am getting better. (Yasmin)

Asia also mentioned that leaving their husband was the path to regain autonomy and healing, “When I left my husband, I started to feel better and, my mental health improved.”

Some of the interviewees stressed that the cost of divorcing was losing custody of their children when declared incompetent, given that they were maj’nuna/mentally ill.

After my divorce the children went with their father because I was maj’nuna/mentally ill and therefore could not take care of them. They come to visit me at home and most of the time sleep in my apartment. Despite all that I went through, they love me, support me, and watch over me.

Coming out of chaos and annihilation, these women started therapy to free themselves from what was inside of them to regain strength. In their own words,

Talk to the psychiatrist and free yourself from what is inside and prevent illness and keep your sanity. (Asala)

Talking therapy was enough to regain my mental health, and I did not need medicine. I can face my problems and I gained my strength from my children. When I am in distress I turn to my children and my mother and also to the therapist. (Asia)

I privately went to a psychologist to confront my disease and conquer it. I did not take any medication. I just needed to speak and release what was inside of me. (Sabiya)

Reconstructing a Favorable Identity

Once they escaped oppression and were in a safe place, these women began to feel empowered to reconstruct their identity as women who had faced adversity, resisted domination, and regained their dignity. In their own words,

He tried to control me and took advantage of the time that he was alone with the children to tell them that I was a bad mother who hated them. But I didn’t let him. I showed him that I was strong and that I could face any adversity. At moments I felt down and weak, but I would not let him see the weak side of me. (Lia)

I never was dependent on him. To the contrary, he was the one dependent on me. I was the one who was providing for the family. I was doing a man’s job. He did not have any power over me to force me to do what he wanted. (Asia)

For these women, the only way to survive the abuse and regain their mental health was to detach themselves from their oppressive husband and extended family and divorce the abuser. In the words of Amira,

Not to shut up! Not to keep silent! Not to suffer in silence! Do not remain silent when a violent husband abuses you! Get away, leave! Divorce him. Be active so you don’t stay in your dark thoughts. (Amira)

Advising Other Battered Muslim Women

One of the interviewees’ advised to stop living with false hope that the batterer would change his behavior. Only then could the woman find her path to sanity and resilience,

Break the silence. Don’t give another chance to someone who tells you that he made mistakes when he hits you and makes the same mistake again. He will continue over and over again. By breaking the silence, they will save their mental health and prevent mental illness to break out. (Asala)

Similarly, Sabiya recommended to stop clinging to anyone who abuses and humiliates,

Run away from anything that may harm or bother you. Do not cling to someone who is verbally abusive and humiliates you.

Other recommendations to battered Muslim women who had become mentally ill included adopting a positive outlook on life, being strong, speaking up, and seeking help. In their own words,

Look at the positive, at the good sides of your life so you can avoid or overcome your disease. (Amira)

Be strong and wise. Start living for yourself. To keep healthy and prevent depression or another disease you must open yourself to the right people. (Sabiya)

Yeba added,

I advise women not to keep things in their heart. To go out and speak out! Ask for help to prevent a mental and physical breakdown.

Lia appealed to God to help other women like her fight the abuse and neutralize the discrediting label of maj’nuna/insane that had petrified them.

Confront everything, even the label of maj’nuna that they try to put on you. Women must go forward and believe in Allah who wins over evil. To prevent disease release what is inside. Do not shut up. Share what is happening to you with neighbors, family, or with anyone who can help.

Reclaiming the Right to Be Treated with Dignity

These women did not believe that only Muslim women were battered. They protested the lack of humanity with which women were treated regardless of their religion. In their own words,

A woman is also a person. She deserves respect from her husband and from other males in the family. No one has the right to beat a woman or subject her to any kind of abuse. Women deserve respect no matter what is their ethnic group, religion or state. (Asala)

No one has the right to beat a woman or subject her to any kind of abuse. This should not happen no matter what is the ethnic group, religion or state to which this woman belongs. Women deserve respect. (Amira)

The interviewees concluded that various organizations that aim at helping battered women cannot fulfill their goal since battered women seldom report the abuse,

There are a few organizations that help battered women. But they are not always successful. They must find ways to reach out to battered women because not all women speak of the abuse. Most of them keep silent and hide the abuse. (Yeba)

Discussion

Summary

The goal of this qualitative study was to find out the extent to which Muslim women who escaped severe physical and emotional abuse in the extended family by going insane and thereafter divorcing were able to reconstruct their autobiography and negotiate a favorable identity that had been stained as maj’nuna/insane. Content analysis of the narratives of 15 battered Muslim women shows they were entrapped in a web of norms and traditions that command silence and total obedience to husbands and extended family members for the sake of the children and family honor and reputation. Under such a normative and interactive framework, Muslim women could only represent themselves as helpless, isolated, and powerless victims whose voice was discredited as majnuna/insane (Barakat, 1993; Daoud et al., 2012; Haj-Yahia, 1999). Any protest, sign of anxiety and depression, and refusal to perform house chores for the extended family was met by husbands and in-laws with more yelling, beating, and silencing while being accused of malingering. The only expectation for role these women was to remain silent when suffering abuse and inhumane treatment.

Conclusions

The findings of this study conform with the constructivist perspective that these women’s experiences and definition of themselves cannot be understood without relocating their experience within a Muslim patriarchal collectivistic culture with its own traditions and practices (Quosh & Gergen, 2008). Other previous studies conducted with battered Muslim women in the Middle East and in the United States (Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009; Hassouneh-Phillips, 2003; Hulley et al., 2023) the findings of this study show that despite the legal actions taken in Israel since 1991 to criminalize battering, deter the batterer, and protect battered women, violence against Muslim women continues due to practices that devalue women and entitle men to dominate and beat their spouse with impunity (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 1996, 1998, 2000; Haj-Yahia, 2002).

The findings of this study also show as in previous studies that childhood experiences of abuse or witnessing parental violence increase the acceptance of violence and prevent help-seeking behavior (Haj-Yahia, 1998a, 2003; Haj-Yahia & de Zoysa, 2007; Muhammad, Haj-Yahia & Uysal, 2008). Also indicated, as in previous studies conducted worldwide, are the long-term consequences of battering on women’s physical and mental health (Al-Krenawi & Graham, 2000; Campbell, 2002; Dillon et al., 2013; Haj-Yahia, 1997, 2002; Karakurt et al., 2014). Battered and discredited as maj’nuna/insane, the women in the present study witnessed the progressive deterioration of their health when developing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and neurofunctional disorder, which were met with fear, lack of understanding and compassion in the extended family. It was only under the threat of psychological and physical annihilation and imminent danger to the life of their children that these women resisted by becoming maj’nuna/mentally ill and escaped. Disengaged from significant others, detached from the norms and practices of collectivist patriarchal culture that commanded silence when abused, no longer caring about what others thought or said, these women endorsed the label that had dehumanized them to become “the worst maj’nuna” who exercised agency. Escaping to the family of origin and/or mental health clinic, these women broke the silence to reveal the abuse, and protest the inhumane treatment to which they had been subjected. In a safe place away from the abusers, these women redefined their identity as humans who had regained their voice and dignity. Divorced and in public housing they relied on Allah and at times mental health professionals to heal and live in peace.

Durkheim (1897) mentioned more than a century ago the important function played by deviant behaviors such as suicide and insanity in pointing to social change. Becoming maj’nuna battered Muslim women brings into the foreground major societal themes of abuse and dehumanization of women in a patriarchal collectivistic culture that blames women for their battering and seldom condemns the batterer. We also find it appropriate to mention Foucault (2000) concepts of the limitations of top-down formal power and bottom-up resistance.

Limitations

This study suffered from several limitations, one of them being the small size of this purposive sample of severely battered Muslim women who were uneducated and of low socioeconomic status. Although the sample size was small, the narrative and autobiographical memories of these women reveal a common experience of being inhumanly treated with no voice to protest or seek help when discredited as maj’nuna/insane, beaten by husband and extended family members, and witnessing their children’s suffering.

Another drawback of this study was the use of autobiographical memories in the narrative of women who had divorced at least 7 years prior to the interviews. Memories of events and sensitive personal issues may become distorted in magnitude and heavily rely on perceptions and interpretations of a constructed reality. Indeed, this study adopted a constructivist perspective (Quosh & Gergen, 2008) and did not attempt to verify the accuracy of battered Muslim women’s autobiographical memories, but rather understand their shared experience of domination and oppression by a husband and in-laws in a culture where sanctions beating and denies women dignity.

Implications/Recommendations

One of the implications of this study is that formal legal resources such as court restriction orders, arrests, and criminal prosecution are not sufficient to deter batterers socialized to the norms and practices of a culture that legitimizes beating and the devaluation of women. The authors’ recommendations to effectuate lasting change is to turn to informal sources of social control such as respected members of community and religious leaders ready to condemn the inhumane treatment of women and battering and provide a forum for battered women to publicly expose the batterers and achieve deterrence. Another recommendation is to raise the awareness of the medical staff and mental health practitioners of the early precursors of abuse such as control, confinement, and isolation when Muslim women come to the pediatrician or nurse practitioner for monthly check-ups of their infant required socialized medicine. Finally, based on the findings of this study, the authors recommend going beyond the false dichotomy of victimization and agency in IPV since it fails to reflect battered women’s experience in collectivistic cultures. Alternative models will uncover battered women’s covert and overt paths of resistance when entrapped within collectivistic sociocultural norms, poverty, and a web of multiple forms of abuse and oppression within the extended family. In the present study, becoming mentally ill and endorsing the stigma of maj’nuna become forms of resistance to abuse, empowering battered Muslim women to break the silence, divorce, and reclaim a positive identity.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

ORCID iD

Brenda Geiger

Notes

Author Biographies

Brenda Geiger, PhD, Professor Brenda Geiger was a political refugee from Egypt in Paris, France, and immigrated to Israel after graduating high school. She has completed two PhD, one of them in Legal philosophy and the other in Educational psychology at the University of New York, Albany. Prof. Geiger is a professor of Criminology at Western Galilee College and a licensed educational psychologist. The main topics of her research focus on women’s resistance to violence inside and outside the family, and on the protection of children against verbal and sexual abuse. She has conducted interviews with convicted child sexual offenders, with battered women from various ethnic groups, and with children on verbal abuse in the classroom.

Layan Esa is a female religious Muslim who obtained a BA in Criminology from the Western Galilee College. Lyan is bilingual and grew up among Jews and Arabs in a multiethnic city. She has worked for several years in Enosh a community center for Muslim women with mental illness in Northern Galilee. Thereafter, she pursued graduate studies and completed a Masters in Social Work at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and currently works in East Jerusalem.

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