Feminists

When the husband of a client of mine couldn't get her location (the court directed that I be served with anything that needed serving), he went out into the family court waiting room and bellowed at the top of his lungs that I had kidnapped his children, etc. etc.

That was a bad one. The two little kids were sexually abused, the woman was physically abused ... and I started having nightmares about him coming in my door and me going out the window. When he telephoned me at home, I called the police in the adjoining city where he lived. They said not to call my own police if he showed up at my door, to call them because they would get there in record time.

He was Ethiopian, had been residing in Germany, and was deported back to Germany. But not before attempting to molest a child in the airport washroom. At least deportation was available in that case!

Sadly, the woman had no support system in town (other than the women's shelter who had referred her to me). She was Iranian, but not Muslim. She tried really hard to integrate with her kids, but I think she ended up going back to Iran. She was a lovely person and I have always hoped she and the kids found safe harbour somewhere.


Oops, what I was meaning to say was: women's vulnerability, there are just so many sources of it. My client might not have been vulnerable to abuse had she had friends and family around her; immigrant women can be specially vulnerable because of that. But almost all of us have some vulnerability that can be exploited by someone determined to gain control.