Laying down law for immigrants

This program is explaining to immigrants that domestic abuse is illegal in this country, even if their own culture allows it. - - Donna Poisl

Counseling program warns against domestic violence

By Anne Krueger (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer

EAST COUNTY — In a cramped room filled with about 30 recent Iraqi immigrants, Dilkhwaz Ahmed asked for their reactions to a story she told about a woman who was beaten by her husband.

“If he kept doing it again and again, he must go to prison,” said Haman Salman, 34, a woman wearing a pink blouse and sitting in the back of the room.

Kameel Maqo, 40, who was a taxi driver in Iraq, had a different reaction.

“It's her personality that decides whether the guy wants to beat her up or not,” he said. “There must be a reason that guy beat her up.”

Ahmed explained to the group – all of whom arrived in the United States within the past year – that domestic violence that might have been tolerated in Iraq is not acceptable here.
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