Wife Abuse in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health and gender problem, especially in low-income countries. The study focused on verbal abuse, physical abuse and abuse by restricting food provision to wives by their husbands by victim and perpetrator characteristics, emphasizing the socioeconomic context of rural Bangladesh. Using a cross-sectional household survey of 4411 randomly selected married women of reproductive age, the study found that a majority of the respondents are exposed to verbal abuse (79%), while 41% are exposed to physical abuse. A small proportion (5%) of the women had suffered food-related abuse. Risk factors observed were age of the wife, illiteracy (of both victims and perpetrators), alcohol misuse, dowry management, husband's monetary greed involving parents-in-law, and wife's suspicions concerning husband's extramarital affairs. Well-established risk factors for wife abuse, along with dowry and husband's monetary greed, have a relatively high prevalence in rural Bangladesh.

A study on the Socio-demographic profile of the victims of sex offences attending the Department of Forensic Medicine of a Tertiary Care Institute of Kolkata, West Bengal

“…Different studies showed that the relationship between individual educational attainment and intimate partner violence and sexual violence was complex. Low level of education was however the most consistent factor associated with both the perpetration and experiencing of intimate partner violence and sexual violence across studies (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). Women who reported lower levels of education (primary or none) had a 2 to 5-fold increased risk of intimate partner violence compared to higher-educated women ( 14,15,19, 23 24,25,26 ).…”

Male Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Wife Beating: A Multi-Country Study in South Asia

“…Despite copious research evidence pointing to men as perpetrators of wife beating, most studies examine risk factors that render women vulnerable to their husbands [2,4 -6]. Information is usually indirectly obtained from the women, even for studies exploring characteristics of male batterers [1][2][3]7]. There is a paucity of literature on studying males as perpetrators of wife abuse.…”

“…Wife beating is an acute issue in the Indian subcontinent [7][8][9][10]. However, few studies have examined men's attitudes toward wife beating, especially in that region [2,3,6,10 -14] A study on Indian men's attitudes toward violence against women indicates that men's relationship rights and autonomy are highly predictive of wife beating, especially for those men who have been exposed to parental violence during childhood [3].…”

Intimate Partner Violence in Muslim Communities

“…In addition, IPV was associated with a higher number of children. Rahman et al [37] conducted a study in Bangladesh that mirrors this finding.They found Muslim women to be significantly more likely to experience unintended pregnancies than non-Muslim women. However, a study by Dalalet al [34] on contraception use and IPV targeting both Muslim and non-Muslim women in Bangladesh found that abused women are twice as likely to use contraceptives.…”

“…Three studies conducted in Bangladesh identified that Muslim women were more likely to experience all forms of IPV than their non-Muslim counterparts [34][35][36]. However, a fourth study by Dalalet al [37] found the same differences between Muslim and non-Muslim women in all forms of abuse except for physical abuse. Contrary to the findings of the Bangladeshi studies, research conducted with Lebanese women found Armenian women in the study cohort reporting more physical abuse than Muslim women [38].…”