The new wave: How transnational feminist networks promote domestic violence reform in postcommunist Europe

The concept "domestic violence"-referring to violence against women occurring in the private sphere that is construed as an act of injustice, a violation of human rights, and a criminal act-is new to postcommunist societies.1 Over the course of the 1990s several terms for such violence emerged, varying somewhat from country to country. In some countries the most common term is "violence in the family," for example, przemoc w rodzinnie in Polish and nasilie v sem'e in Russian. In other cases, such as among some feminist-identified crisis centers in Russia and in Bulgaria, a more direct cognate to the term "domestic violence" is used (domashnee nasilie and domashno nasilie, respectively). Finally, Katalin Fábián finds that across Central Europe "domestic violence has been given a name and it is becoming part of the everyday vocabulary" (Fábián 2006:127).