Silent Night, Unholy Night - Refugee Stories / Sandra Saccucci, Ph.D. (ePub)

"Listen, you're like a ball. When I kick you against the wall, you'll just bounce back to me," Sara's husband, Mohammed barks at her. Mohammed is an Imam or religious leader in Saudi Arabia. One night he returns home, kicks Sara out of their matrimonial bed, and announces he has married a second wife, Hiba, a 16-year-old child-bride. When Sara has the "audacity" to react, he manipulates her into thinking she is somehow at fault, that she is an inadequate wife. Sara is a devoted mother of four boys, and yet, she is compelled to flee Saudi Arabia and leave her children behind. She can no longer tolerate the physical and emotional abuse to which she has been subjected throughout her marriage.

Sara is not alone: women from all over the world are subjected to violence. These women come from different socio-economic classes, different religions, different cultures and different countries. But the men who abuse them are all the same: cowardly and insecure bullies. Silent Night, Unholy Night - Refugee Stories depicts women from Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Albania. These women are compelled to flee their countries of origin due to gender-based persecution. They are refugees who suffer domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, abduction, coerced marriages, forced religious conversion and human trafficking. There is no state or police protection for abused women in many countries. Violence against women is regarded as a private family matter, and the police will not intervene to protect these victims. Often the society in which they live, and their own families do not support them.

Their dream is to live in North America where they can have a safe haven, where the police, the legal system and society at large protects abused women. Raw and riveting, their stories scream out to be heard.