et Quote: Leslie Morgan Steiner

CAIRO – 25 November 2017: “The question, 'Why does she stay?' is code for some people for, 'It's her fault for staying,' as if victims intentionally choose to fall in love with men intent upon destroying us,” said Leslie Morgan Steiner.

Leslie Morgan Steiner is an author, blogger, and public speaker on violence against women, and other women’s rights and gender issues. For years, Steiner was a victim of domestic violence and abuse by her husband. In 2009, she turned her experience into advocacy for abused women and published the “Crazy Love” memoir which was a New York Times bestseller and People Pick Book of the Week for The Week Magazine.

“I never knew anything about domestic violence... I just thought I was in love with a very troubled man," she described her marriage.


Crazy Love Book Cover - Photo courtesy of Leslie Morgan Steiner official website

Steiner became the General Manager of the $1.1 million circulation Washington Post Magazine. She writes a weekly column called “Two Cents on Modern Motherhood”, where she collects stories of women struggling to balance motherhood and their careers.

In her TED Talk in 2013, Steiner explained the reasons why she did not leave her husband despite being subjected to domestic violence for years. Her answers relate to millions of women around the world, who feel that they would not have possibilities beyond their abusive relationships.


Another quote from Leslie:

“I did not know that the first step in any domestic violence relationship is to seduce and charm the victim. I also didn’t know that the second step is to isolate the victim. The next step in domestic violence pattern is to introduce the threat of violence and see how she reacts. We victims know something you non victims usually don’t. It is incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser, because the final step in the domestic violence pattern is to kill her. Over 70 percent of domestic violence murders happen after the victim has ended the relationship.”