First of all we need to understand the different cultural practices taking place in different countries. Under that shelter many people use forced marriage, which is socially sanctioned in those societies.
Even recently a bill was passed in the Pakistan national assembly by the Council of Islamic Ideology that anyone can marry a woman who is seven years of age and up. This recommendation has been made by the Pakistan Council of Islamic Ideology. In defence of this recommendation they took the position that our prophet married seven- or nine-year-old A’ishah, so why can't we marry women of 12 or 16 years of age, and determining any age limit is not Islamic or is not rational according to them.
Similarly, polygamy is common there as well, as it is in most Arabic countries. They are already married with two or three wives when they move to Canada. First they pretend that they have one wife but when they come here, they use a different means to bring other wives to Canada as well. No one can challenge them under those religious practices, which are a violation of human rights and all that.
I agree that conditional permanent residence, which has been introduced here in Canada, is not empowering the woman. It is making women further vulnerable because it strengthens the sponsor. It's not strengthening the woman because the sponsor can revoke the sponsorship at any time.
I have come across a few cases where a woman is educated and the spouse was abusive and she tried to get out. The problem is that the social network they have around them is mostly the community social network. They end up at religious centres or community centres which misdirect and mislead them about cultural and religious variances in order to scare them from approaching any social assistance or any kind of assistance.
There should be education to brief the women about their rights, and permanent residence should not be revoked. It should not be conditional about the woman....
Also the cultural practices that are common in the different countries which are socially sanctioned there, such as honour killings and female genital mutilation, these are taking place here. Even in Canada some doctors are performing female genital mutilation.
We should take all these practices into consideration and try to encourage the woman so that she does not feel vulnerable. If she approaches anyone her permanent residence should not be cancelled.