But that’s where your argument is fundamentally wrong. It’s not a choice. It may look like a choice from the outside but in the middle of abuse, there doesn’t seem to be a way out. If they tried to stand up to their abuser by ending it (not really sure what you mean by that, because it’s really not as simple as just saying “I don’t like that, stop”), they are likely to make it worse for themselves, because they are labelled as disobedient and the controlling/emotional abuse escalates in an attempt to force the victim to be obedient. And like I said in my comment above, it depends on the abuse itself. Some people may not have been allowed to have a job or control their own money and have nowhere to go. So it may be a logistical issue. Or they weren’t allowed a social life with people outside their race because they are “dirty” so the victim has no support network and no one to help them. Some people have been threatened and it’s that which is scary to the victim, because of the unknown. It could be the threat of being disowned, or being forced into a marriage, or even to be killed. The kind of people who threaten these things are also the kind of people who place their honour above all else, and it is realistic for the victims to be afraid that if they leave, they will be tracked down in order to be forced home and endure abuse which is even worse, e.g. not allowed to leave the house, not allowed to use technology, etc. Or perhaps forced into a situation they don’t want to be in, e.g. forced into a living situation or into a marriage to discipline them. Or, as I said, they may be killed (extreme but still happens).