The politics of 'speaking out': NESB women and the discourse of sexual assault in Australia

In Australia, public policy discourse on rape and sexual assault emerged in the early 1970s. Until recently, however, sexual assault in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, such as the Non-English Speaking Backg round (NESB) groups, was largely an invisible issue both in government and non-government sectors. Now interest in the sexual assault of NESB women ha s increased even though NESB women themselves have mostly kept silent about it. This paper explores the category NESB, which is not homogeneous, and a sks why interest in sexual assault against its women is increasing in publi c discourse in Australia, while the women themselves have kept silent or do not want to speak out Furthermore, this paper investigates discourse about the sexual assault of NESB women, focusing on the reasons and meanings tha t underlie the women's silence. This paper also examines how the current di scourse on sexual assault against NESB women has affected them and, in conc lusion, advocates a political strategy for ending their silence.