But the women are particularly vulnerable. Unable to speak English and unfamiliar with U.S. customs and laws, the women are easy targets for men seeking to dominate submissive women. Such men can become abusive when a woman asserts herself, said Michelle J. Anderson, a Villanova University law professor who specializes in feminist legal theory. An underlying problem for many men in America, she said, is accepting women as true equals. Some deal with this by going on wife-seeking tours, she said, and others respond by dominating women through violence and rape.
Abuse is nothing new for many women from the former Soviet Union.
The Family Violence Preven tion Fund, a nonprofit social agency in San Francisco, says domestic violence is common in Russia. There are no statistics to show whether women from Russia are more or less likely to be abused in the U.S. than American women. In a 1993 survey of abused women in U.S. shelters, the Family Violence Prevention Fund found that a significant number were immigrants, many from the former Soviet Union. Leni Marin, associate director of the fund, said many had been abused by their partners but were afraid to seek help because the men threatened to scuttle their chances for citizenship. Until recently, the American citizen in the couple, invariably the man, had to petition for the spouse's green card, leading to U.S. citizenship.