Prevalence of wife beating in Jordanian refugee camps: reports by men and women

Abstract

W ife beating, the most widespread form of domestic violence, has adverse consequences on the health and wellbeing of women and is a major cause of disability and death in many countries. 1 In the past few years, it has been widely reported in developing countries' contexts, 2 where patriarchal family norms are common. 3 In the Middle East, patriarchal gender relations reinforced by traditional cultural, legal, and perhaps religious legacies may have directly or indirectly influenced the persistence of violence against women. In fact, intimate partner violence is not considered a criminal act in many Arab countries. Available studies provide only limited insight into the prevalence of domestic violence in a patriarchal context. Furthermore, most previous studies of wife beating from developing countries focused on female respondents, thus neglecting men, the perpetrators of violence.Using data from independent samples of married men and women, this study investigated the prevalence of wife beating in the Palestinian refugee camps of Jordan. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the similarity between men's self reports of violence and women's reports of being subjected to domestic violence. The focus was on lifetime physical domestic violence against women, but estimates of current (past year) beating as well as injuries resulting from beating were also described. METHODSThis exploratory study used data from the recently completed living conditions survey of Jordan's refugee camps. This was a cross sectional survey of 2590 households selected randomly from 12 refugee camps using a sampling frame provided by Jordan's Department of Statistics. Some of the camps housed refugees displaced as a result of the 1967 war, others included refugees from the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war. The instrument consisted of three questionnaires: one for the household, one for a randomly selected adult aged 15+ years from each household, and the third for all ever-married women. The data pertaining to wife beating were obtained by face to face interviews with randomly selected adults (adult questionnaire). The study was approved (including an ethical review) by Yarmouk University and the government of Jordan. Fieldwork took place in the spring and summer of 1999, with an overall response rate of 95%. Our original sample was reduced because of the eligibility criteria used for answering the domestic violence questions: currently married, living with spouse, and privacy during the interview. Of the total sample of 801 married adults, 395 persons (262 women and 133 men) were included in the study. There was remarkable similarity between our sample and the original one in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. However, the selected sample was slightly younger (mean age 37.5) than the original (mean age 40), and hence included better educated respondents (29.8% compared with 25.8% with secondary education).We asked married women whether they had experienced specific acts of violence, including being slapped, grabbed, shove...

Domestic Violence against Women during Pregnancy: The Case of Palestinian Refugees Attending an Antenatal Clinic in Lebanon

“…27 The mean age of women who had ever been emotionally or physically abused was 28 years, which was slightly higher than those who were abused within the last year (26.25 years) or during pregnancy (25.5 years). Women who had been abused also had a lower level of education on average than the general sample: 8.5 years for those who were subjected to abuse during their lifetime and 7.4 years for those who were abused during pregnancy and last year.…”

“…26 The prevalence of wife-beating in Jordanian refugee camps during a woman's lifetime was 44.7%. 27 Preliminary descriptive findings from this screening study revealed that DV against pregnant refugee women was common, 59% women had ever experienced physical violence, 19.1% experienced physical violence during the past year, 26.2% were subjected to sexual coercion, 16.8% experienced emotional violence, and 11.4% experienced physical violence during pregnancy. 28 To our knowledge, no study has been conducted to investigate the factors associated with DV against women during pregnancy in the Arab region.…”

Prevalence estimate of intimate partner violence in Jordan

“…The study of refugee camp populations used an instrument similar to the WHO questionnaire to measure physical intimate partner violence and found a life-time prevalence of 42.5% [22]. The refugee camp study also included men, of whom 48.9% reported [23].…”

Explaining trends and patterns in attitudes towards wife-beating among women in Nigeria: analysis of 2003, 2008, and 2013 Demographic and Health Survey data

“…A multi-country analysis of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data showed that approximately one fifth to one half of women experienced spousal or intimate-partner abuse (Kishor and Johnson 2004). Several scholars have reported on the widespread domestic violence perpetrated against Arab women by their spouses (Douki et al 2003;Khawaja and Twetel-Salem 2004;Khawaja and Barazi 2005;Diop-Sidibe et al 2006;Usta et al 2007). Domestic violence against women is also prevalent in Asia, Europe, and South America (Ellsberg et al 1999;Burazeri et al 2005;Khan and Aeron 2006).…”