DV happens in every community and I have personally seen cases of Somali women who have been abused and beat up by their spouses. It even happened to a close family members of mine.
What differentiates Somalis from others, is that despite DV happening at times, we don’t normalize it, nor is it seen as acceptable In our culture. The average Somali father, brother and the like would be disgusted to hear if his daughter/sister has getting abused and would demand a divorce straight away. Even the community at larger would help and think the wife should leave. When the close family member of mine was physically beat up, all her uncles and brothers came to have a word with the husband and demanded he divorce her. Other Muslim groups on the other hand, would encourage the wife to stay and fathers and brothers might not do their duty to protect their sister/daughter as the stigma if divorce is more important than the life, health and happiness of their daughter.
That’s the key difference. Saying DV doesn’t happen in the Somali community is false, but saying that Somalis do not tolerate or accept DV it is true. It’s seen as unmanly, abhorrent and nasty. That attitude we have towards DV is something I’ll always cherish and respect.