292 Chapter 14: Abuse, violence, and self-defense
Abandonment
Sometimes people abandon or refuse to care for a disabled person. A family may
abandon a disabled child if they are ashamed or if they think they will not be
able to give the child the care she needs. A woman who becomes disabled may be
abandoned by her husband or family because they are unable to accept the change
in her body.
I wouldn’t be here if
my husband hadn’t
abandoned me.
We’re so poor we barely have
enough food to feed the family. And
now we have to feed her too! We’ll
be even more hungry, and it’s all
Many disabled
women who are
abandoned move in
with relatives who
her fault.
may make her feel
bad. When there is
a lot of work to be
done or if the family
is already poor, disabled women
often feel as though they are a
burden. Sometimes relatives
blame the disabled woman
for being the ‘cause’ of their
misfortune, especially if she has
children.
Isolation
Keeping a disabled woman shut inside a room alone is one of the worst forms
of abuse.
When a community does not respect or
excludes people with disabilities, then some
I wish I could go
outside. I get so lonely
lying here all the time.
people are ashamed to have a disabled woman
or girl in the family. They may try to keep other
people from finding out about disabled women
and girls in their families, or pretend they do
not exist. Often, disabled women and girls are
not allowed to get an education or participate
in community events or religious services.
In some communities, disabled women are isolated because other people are
afraid that being around them will make them disabled too. And some people
believe if a pregnant woman touches a disabled woman, her baby will be born with
a disability. None of this is true. You cannot catch a disability from someone else.
A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities 2007