As Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) 2026 comes to a close, AF³IRM remains committed to standing with survivors of violence in transnational solidarity. We reassert our claim that domestic violence is an intimate form of imperialism, characterized by actions of an abuser to maintain power and control over a “partner.” Thus, any effective campaign against imperialism must also address intimate partner violence against women and members of the queer community.
In an abusive relationship, abusers employ tactics like psychological violence to damage the victim’s self-image and self-esteem, financial abuse to drain the victim of resources required to regain independence, reputational harm, implied and covert threats of violence, humiliation, threats to take her* children away, and physical or sexual violence. When called out, the abuser shifts blame by denying wrongdoing, attacking the accuser, and insisting that he* is the true victim with a right to self-defense, an incontestable “right to exist” (a common abuser manipulation strategy, often referred to as Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender, abbreviated as DARVO). Attempts to leave require strong allies, resources, and careful planning, and are fraught with peril; survivors are up to 9 times more likely to be killed when attempting to leave an abusive relationship.
As transnational feminists fighting imperialism and colonialism, we have observed colonizers utilizing similar tactics against occupied nations and peoples: hard power (e.g., military invasion, armed intervention, economic sanctions, blockades, tariffs—physical force, occupation, and resource extraction) and soft power (the influence of political and cultural ideals via entertainment media, education, language, and consumer goods; also referred to as cultural imperialism) are deployed to exploit land and labor until the relationship feels inescapable. Minds are colonized, valuable resources are extracted, and state violence is normalized while resistance violence is condemned.** The oppressed engage in daily acts of resistance, but eventually, efforts to regain independence can feel futile or, in the gravest situations, lead to premature death.
Thus, we maintain that domestic violence is both an intimate form of imperialism and imperialism’s most basic expression to commit femicide. To defeat imperialism and the global rise of fascism, we must commit to a genuine plan to end and prevent intimate partner violence. We demand LANDBACK and BODIESBACK as intertwined liberation models that make abuse intolerable and communities and the people within them invulnerable to cruelty and exploitation.
This and every DVAM until DVAM is no longer necessary, we decry oppressive violence in all of its forms - both intimate and imperial. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the victims of relationship and state violence and fight for their right to sovereignty and self-determination. We condemn any criticism made in the name of feminism of one’s right to violently resist oppression, for the paramount but most denied right of both women and oppressed communities is the right to exit an abusive or exploitative relationship. For none of us is free till all of us are free–from abusive partners AND colonizing nations. We demand land AND bodies back; land and women are not for conquest.
If you or someone you know is experiencing dating or domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline operates an anonymous, confidential, 24-hour toll-free hotline for victims of domestic violence at 1–800–799–7233 (SAFE) or TTY: 1–800–787–3224 or text “START” to 88788 (msg & data rates may apply). The advocates who operate this line provide support rooted in care and nonjudgment and can assist with safety planning and provide local shelter and service referrals. Click here to learn what to expect when you contact the National DV Hotline.
* Domestic violence is not limited to different-sex relationships, as members of the LGBTQ+ community and men also experience domestic violence. Research-backed, culturally-grounded support resources and prevention programs for men and queer folks are needed. Domestic violence is also not gender neutral: globally, 87% of intimate partner violence perpetrators are male (Kathryn Blake, "Domestic Abuse Gender Statistics," Worldmetrics, 12 February 2026) while in the US from 1994 to 2010 approximately 4 in 5 victims of intimate partner violence were female and around 75% of fatal victims of domestic violence-related homicide are women (CDC National Intimate Partner Violence Survey NISVS).
** For more on how imperialist powers use DARVO to maintain power and control over occupied peoples and nation-states in ways that mirror abusers in IPV relationships, read Kylie Cheung’s Playing the Victim.
