"Hearing Their Voices": Exploring Femicide among Migrants and Culture Minorities

Anita Nudelman; Santiago Boira; Tina Tiko Tsomaia; Ecaterina Balica; Sopio Tabagua

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.13.3.04

Authors

Anita Nudelman Ben Gurion University, Israel
Santiago Boira University of Zaragoza, Spain
Tina Tiko Tsomaia Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), Georgia
Ecaterina Balica Romanian Academy, Romania
Sopio Tabagua The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), Georgia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.13.3.04

Keywords:

Femicide Survivors, Immigrants, Qualitative Interview Guide, Culture-Sensitivity

Abstract

The rates of domestic violence and femicide in various European countries tend to be higher among migrant women, as well as among women from cultural minorities. This led to the development of a culture and gender-sensitive in-depth interview guide aimed at better understanding this phenomenon, as well as identifying specific aspects of the experience of violence in a foreign scenario. The first stage was developing a draft interview guide based on the most important issues addressed in the professional literature, relating both to victims of domestic violence and to survivors of femicide and their families. This has allowed others to “hear their voices” and to understand their own perspectives, which are especially important considering the steady increase of this phenomenon around the world. The second phase was a pilot study among immigrant femicide survivors: first in Spain, later in Romania, and finally in Georgia, focusing on internally displaced people. The last step was analyzing the feedback from the different countries, which led to a refined and improved version of the interview guide. Thus, the current paper presents an ongoing process leading to a standardized interview guide, which could be adapted to local socio-cultural contexts, enabling comparative studies across Europe.

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Author Biographies

Anita Nudelman, Ben Gurion University, Israel

Anita Nudelman is an applied medical anthropologist who lectures in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the African Studies Program at Ben Gurion University (Israel). Her areas of expertise include gender issues, sexual health, and HIV. She has led UNAIDS sponsored community-based Rapid Assessment Processes in Africa, as well as projects related to culture and gender transformative sexual health (including prevention of gender-based violence) and HIV prevention. She is active in the COST Action IS1206 “Femicide across Europe” and Co-Chair of the Committee on Anthropology and HIV/AIDS, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Studies (IUAES).
Santiago Boira, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Santiago Boira graduated in Psychology from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and received his PhD from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Sociology and coordinator of the Master’s degree in Gender Relations at the University of Zaragoza. His research interests focus on gender issues, intimate partner violence, especially in male abusers. He is a member of the network “Femicide across Europe,” Cost Action IS1206. He is a researcher of the Group of Social and Economic Studies of the Third Sector (GESES).
Tina Tiko Tsomaia, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), Georgia

Tina (Tiko) Tsomaia is a Professor at the Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management (CSJMM) of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), where she is completing her PhD in Social Sciences. She has a BA and MA in Medicine and an MA in Journalism and Media Management. She was a post-graduate research fellow at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University. She is an MC member of the COST Action IS1206 “Femicide across Europe” and a board member of the Georgian Psychotrauma Society. Her research topics are: pre-natal sex selection, trauma and addiction, ethical decision-making, and health communication.
Ecaterina Balica, Romanian Academy, Romania

Ecaterina Balica is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Romanian Society of Criminology (2013 to present) and of the “Association Internationale des Criminologues de Langue Française” (AICLF). She is a Romanian representative in the Management Committee of COST Action IS1206 “Femicide across Europe.” In the past years, her research has focused on homicide-suicides, femicide-suicides, migration and crime, and restorative justice. The results of her studies were published in international peer reviewed journals, in book chapters, and international conferences.
Sopio Tabagua, The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), Georgia

Sopio Tabaghua graduated from Tbilisi State Medical University in 2002. She is a licensed psychiatrist-psychotherapist. Since 2003, she has been practicing in the field of rehabilitation. Currently she is a coordinator at The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) and psychiatrist in the Mental Health Hospital. She is preparing for the entrance examinations for a doctoral degree; her interest is “Endophenotypic characteristics of schizophrenia.” She is a board member of Human Rights House Tbilisi, which runs the free legal aid center for socially unprotected people in Georgia and a member of the Georgian Society of Psychotrauma.

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