Once again.. Women speak out: Results of a Field Research on violence against women in Egypt

Once again.. Women speak out.

Results of a Field Research on violence against women in Egypt

Introduction

In 1994 the New Woman Research foundation together with El Nadim Center carried out the first field research on women's perceptions of gender violence. The research was a contribution to the preparatory activities of Egyptian civil society organizations for the Beijing conference on women. It came as a reply to those who claimed that violence against women does not happen in our societies, that it is rare and limited to poor, deprived and marginalized classes and that even when it happens, women do not object to it and consider it a natural component of their personal lives and therefore should not be addressed by outsiders.

At that time, because we are women, and because we believed that human beings all over the world and across all times were thriving for physical and psychological safety and wellbeing, and because we are convinced that our people and our women are not an exception to that rule, since they are first and foremost human begins, we decided to seek the voices of women themselves concerning their attitudes towards violence in general and that violence which befalls them and their children in particular. The results of the 1994 research confirmed that we Egyptian women are no different from all the rest of the world.. we reject harm, humiliation and oppression and wish for a life that is free of violence, injustice and discrimination, even when such a life seems difficult to achieve because of social and economic factors and religious interpretations colored by the mentality of the interpreters.

In 1995 the Demographic Health survey confirmed the results of the 1994 research. It was carried out on a wider national sample of women. Since then and until now work on violence against women has advanced a few steps.. it is not longer that sensitive issue which people refrain from addressing. Programs against gender violence at home, in the workplace and on the streets are increasing and are being hosted by many non governmental organizations. Even official bodies such as the national council for women could no longer avoid the subject. However the approach to the issue remains to a great extent - wit the exception of feminist and human rights organizations - a charitable one, addressing it as an issue of misconduct resulting from lack of morality and education and not for it is: a manifestation of a patriarchal society where patriarchy cuts across all its institutions. Women subjected to gender violence are still looked upon as victims and little effort is made to identify the strengths in those women who, to their best abilities, struggle to live and provide for a better life for their children.

As we did in 1994 to identify the forms of violence that befall women and their attitudes towards that violence, we returned again to the women in 2007 to revisit the map of gender violence in Egypt and to listen to what they have to say concerning a proposed legislation to criminalize domestic violence, a campaign which el Nadim had organized in collaboration with 90 Egyptian non governmental organizations (List attached). Our proposal suggests that violence against women be treated like any other crime. Just as theft and murder are considered crimes even when they take place within the family, we argued, together with five other organizations in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, that women should enjoy legal protection even if the crime is committed within the private boundaries of the home. The draft proposal was submitted to five parliamentarians, Mr. Hamdin Sabahi, Dr. Saber Fahmy, Mr. Mohamed Abdel Daiem, Mr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz Shabaan and Mr. Gamal Zahran on the 26^th of March 2008.

Just as women's voices were determinant in 1994 in breaking the walls of silence surrounding the violence that befalls them, so were their voices in this research, calling upon Egyptian legislation to take a stand regarding gender violence. Not only because the majority of women participating in this research have agreed to the need for such legislation, and not only because a number of them said that even if they were not able to use such a law in their favor, they wish to see it enforced in protection of their daughters in the future, but also because it is time that the impunity of privacy should be lifted off those crimes which take place in the house. The law should address crimes no matter where they take place and no matter who commits them.

The following pages present the results of that research. 1261 women of different ages, educational, social and economic status express their opinions. They do not represent Egyptian women. But they give an indicator regarding the size of the problem and the factors which might impact them.

Those are the voices of women. When it comes to violence against women, it is women who should be talking and the rest should listen.

Research Methodology:

This is a quantitative research. A questionnaire was designed to be filled by the woman herself or in case of illiterate women was read to her by the field researcher. In all cases women had to chose between multiple suggestions with a few open questions to explain some of the choices. The questionnaire was discussed by the team of field researchers and was initially applied to smaller sample, and amended according to the feedback from the field.

Participants in the research included 1261 women from six governorates: Cairo, Giza, Qalubeyya, Alexandria and El Menya. We depended on our connections with community based organizations, among which we wish to especially acknowledge:

Bent El Nil Association - Dar El Salam
Helwan Foundation for Community Development "Bashayer"
Agha Khan Foundation - El Darb El Ahmar
Community Development Association - Ezbet Bekhit
Caritas in Matareyya, Boulaq and Ezbet Hagana
Egyptian Association for Human Development
Family Development Foundation - Giza
Hawa'a El Mostaqbal Association - Menya
Family Planning Association - Alexandria
Women and Development Association - Alexandria

The questionnaire moved from one theme to the other, from more general questions to more detailed and personal ones. The presentation of the results does not follow the same sequence of the questionnaire, but are presented under the following headings:

Description of sample
Women perceptions of gender violence at home, on the street and in the workplace.
Women's personal experience of gender violence at home, on the street and in the workplace.
Attitude towards the proposed legislation against domestic violence against women.
Attitude towards FGM.

Part I

Research Sample

Size and age of sample

The sample included 1262 women. Their ages ranged between 10 and 83 years. Average age was 32.68 years.

Social status:

Most of the women were married (64%), while unmarried women constituted 17%, divorced women 7% and widows 4% of the sample. 8% of the women were in a relation with a significant other, either through engagement or informally.

	Married	Not married	Engaged	Divorced	Widowed	In a relation	Unknown	Total
No	809	213	101	83	50	3	2	1261
%	64	17	8	7	4	0	0	100

Educational Level

The sample included women of different educational levels distributed as follows: 19% illiterate, 11% finished primary school, 10% finished preparatory school, 30% finished secondary school, 23% finished university and 6% had higher degrees.

	Illiterate	Primary	Preparatory	Secondary	University	Higher	?	Total
No	237	144	126	375	292	77	10	1261
%	19	11	10	30	23	6	1	100

Occupation

Two women only were not involved in any occupation. The rest of the women were distributed as follows: 48% housewives, 30% civil servants, 10% workers in factories and workshops, 6% students and 3% professionals. Noteworthy is the small percentage of professionals compared to those with university or beyond university degrees.

	HW	Civil serv	Workers	Student	Prof.	Other	Not working	?	Total
No	611	383	120	77	41	14	2	13	1261
%	48	30	10	6	3	1	0	1	100

Expenditure in the Family:

In 47% of cases the husband or father was the sole breadwinner in the family. In 28% women were contributing to the family income and in 18% they were the only breadwinner. In 1% of cases the children contributed to the family income.

	Husband/Father alone	Wife/Mother contributes	Wife/Mother alone	Children	Other	?	Total
No	587	353	226	8	49	38	1261
%	47	28	18	1	4	3	100

Summary:

Most of the women were married and with some level of education. The majority ranged between high school and university. Housewives constituted about half of the sample. Also about one half of the sample of the women was contributing to the family income either alone or together with their partner.

Part II

Women's Perception of Violence

I. Domestic violence

1- Who are the family members most likely to be subjected to violence?

The majority of the sample believed that the wife is the family member most subjected to violence (61%) followed by the daughter (25%) then the son (9%). 2% mentioned the husband and 3% said they did not know the answer to that question. 3 women said that everybody in the family is subjected to violence and one woman said "nobody". The total is higher than the total size of the sample because of multiple responses to the question.

	Wife	Daughter	Son	Husband	All	None	?	Total
No.	974	394	141	48	3	1	40	1601
%	61	25	9	3	0	0	2	100

2- Who are the family members most likely to be violent in the family?

The majority of responses mentioned the husband or father (40 and 33% respectively), followed with a big difference by family of the husband (8%) then family of wife (7%) then wife or mother ( 4 and 3% respectively).

	Husband	Wife	Family of Husband	Son	Everyone	Don't know
No	898	95	183	71	4	40
%	70	7	14	5	0	3
	Father	Mother	Family of wife	Daughter	Nobody	No answer
No	754	73	64	38	1	39
%	78	8	7	4	0	4

3- Incest

One third of the sample of women had not heard about the crime of incest even after it was explained to them. 66% knew about it and 175 said that they personally knew somebody who was subjected to it. This was followed by an inquiry about a personal experience thereof which we shall address in the following section.

Total responses = 1261	Yes		No		No answer
Total responses = 1261	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Know of it?	827	66	419	33	15	1
Know someone who was subject to it?	215	17	1021	81	25	2

II. Violence on the Street

The majority of women (94%) have heard of women being harassed on the street, while 5% of the sample said they didn't and 1% of the sample did not reply to this question.

Awareness of sexual harassment on the street	No	%
Yes	1178	94
No	65	5
No reply	18	1
Total	1261	100

III. Violence in the workplace:

52% of the women recognize that women are likely to be subjected to harassment in the workplace. 59% of that group were themselves working for wage or students in university (37% civil servants, 11% workers, 6% students, 5% professionals), while 405 were housewives. As for those who did not hear of harassments in the workplace, most of them were housewives (59%) and 38% worked outside the house. (23% civil servants, 8% workers, 6% students, 1% professionals).

Personal knowledge of women who have experienced sexual harassment on the street	No	%
Yes	652	52
No	582	46
No reply	27	2

Summary:

From the above we can conclude that Egyptian women in this research do not lack in awareness regarding violence in women's lives in general. The extent of that awareness depended on the nature of violence and the places where it happened. What all women shared in common, the home, there was a consensus that gender violence does happen (98%). Only one woman denied its existence while 40 women did not reply to that question. Thee was also a majority who believed that the husband or the father was the most violent, followed by the husband's family then the mother then the rest of the members of the family. As for family members whoa re most exposed to that violence, the wife or mother came on top of the list followed by the daughter and then the remainder of family members. 3% of replies believed that the father or husband can also be victims of domestic violence.

Although the percentage of women aware of crimes of incest was lower than that of women who recognized domestic violence in general, still they constituted a high percentage within the sample (66%). One third of them, not a sample to be overlooked, said they personally knew somebody who was subjected to it.

As for harassment of women in the workplace there was higher awareness among students followed by workers, civil servants and professionals compared to housewives.

Part III

Personal experience of Violence

1- Domestic violence

Have you personally experienced violence in the home?

79% replied in the affirmative, while 20% denied and 1% did not reply to the question.

	No	%
Yes	991	79
No	253	20
No reply	17	1

Who was the aggressor?

In 55% of cases the aggressor was the husband, followed by the father (20%), the brother (12%), the husband's family (5%) then the mother, the son and others (2%, 2% and 1% respectively). Again the total number of responses here is higher than the size of the sample because of multiple responses per person.

Aggressor	No	%
Husband	628	55
Father	233	20
Brother	141	12
Husband's family	55	5
No reply	28	2
Mother	25	2
Son	23	2
Other	8	1
Sister	2	0
Stepfather	2	0
The whole family	1	0
Total	1146	100

Forms of Violence Experienced

The forms of violence experienced by those 79% of the sample included on top of the list humiliation, beating, not permitting outings, ignoring, and allowance deprivation. The least reported forms of violence included not allowing education, polygamy, and divorce in absentia. Again the total number is higher than that of the sample size because of multiple responses.

Forms of violence	No.	%
Humiliation	760	18
Beatings	656	16
Not allowed to go out	341	8
Ignoring	309	8
Financial deprivation	286	7
Threats	253	6
Family visits denied	235	6
Extreme jealousy	208	5
Throwing out of the house	207	5
Forced sex	165	4
Not allowing wife to work	163	4
Betrayal	159	4
Threat to take children	127	3
Not permitting education	84	2
Polygamy	82	2
Divorce in absentia	63	2
Other	12	0
Total	4110	100

Comparison between women who have been subject and those have not been subject to domestic violence

We are not among those who believe that women are responsible for the violence that befalls them. We believe that the responsibility of an act lies with the person who commits the act and that the behavior which needs management is that of the aggressor and not that of the object of the aggression. Still we undertook this comparison to provide evidence to our conviction that domestic violence is not limited to class or level of education but that it cuts across all social classes.

Comparing both groups we found that the group subjected to violence is three times the size of the one who has not been subjected to violence. The average age of both groups was similar.

Experienced domestic violence	Yes	No
Number	991	252
Age	10 - 83	11 - 73
Average age	32.2 years	32.5 years

Regarding social status the women most violated were married women followed by non married women, engaged women, divorced women and finally widows. The sequence was the same in the non violated group with the exception of the last two categories where the windows outnumbered the divorcees. No significant statistical differences were found within the two groups. However married and divorced women were significantly more represented in the violated group.

Social status at time of research	Experienced violence		Didn't experience violence
Social status at time of research	No	%	No	%
Widow	41	4	8	3
Not married	148	15	59	23
Married	639	64	163	65
Engaged	84	8	17	7
In a relation	2	0	1	0
Divorced	77	8	4	2
Total	991	100	252	100

As regards level of education women with a secondary school degree were the most prevalent in the violated group followed by those with a university degree, then primary degree, preparatory degree and finally post university degree. The sequence was different within the non violated group: university graduates coming first followed by secondary degree women, illiterate women, women with post university degrees, primary degree and then preparatory degree women. The differences between both groups were not statistically significant.

Educational Level	Experienced violence		Didn't experience violence
Educational Level	No	%	No	%
Illiterate	208	21	28	11
Primary school	120	12	21	8
Preparatory school	106	11	20	8
Secondary school	298	30	71	28
University	197	20	90	36
Post university	54	5	22	9
Total	8	1	0	0

Regarding occupation, violated women outnumbered non violated women in the group of housewives and workers and were less in the remainder of the groups. However the difference was not statistically significant.

Occupation	Experienced violence		Didn't experience violence
Occupation	No	%	No	%
Housewife	512	52	94	37
Civil servant	264	27	112	44
Worker	106	11	12	5
Student	57	6	18	7
Professional	29	3	12	5
Other	13	1	1	0
Unknown	9	1	3	1
Does not work	1	0	1	0
Total	991	100	252	100

Summary:

Women subjected to domestic violence in this research cut across all social and educational statuses. There was no statically significant correlation with a particular occupational status except in the case of housewives who were significantly more among the violated group. It is note worthy that despite increasing voices that explain family problems and the increased rate of divorce to women's work outside the house and the confusion that follows regarding gender roles, our research did not indicate that maintaining the socially sanctioned female gender role of a housewife was protective for women. On the contrary, they were more represented in the violated group.

2. Incest

6% of the women sample said that they have been subjected to incest or sexual harassment by a family member.

Personal experience of incest	Yes	No	No reply	Total
No	74	1134	53	1621
%	6	90	4	100

We have looked in detail into the characteristics of this group and found the following:

Their ages ranged between 19 and 40 years.

They were almost equally distributed between the different educational levels except for those with a primary school degree who were less represented that the other.

Educational level	Illiterate	1ary	Prep.	2ndary	Univ.	Post univ.	Total
No	13	5	14	15	15	12	74
%	18	7	19	20	20	16	100

Regarding occupation the group was mainly made of housewives and women who worked as civil servants.

Occupation	HW	Civil	Worker	Student	Prof.	Unknown	Total
No	33	31	7	1	1	1	74
%	45	42	9	1	1	1	100

Most of the women in this group wee married (66%) followed by unmarried (15%), then divorcees (11%). This point needs further research and investigation. The social status reported here is the social status of the women at the time of the research. There was no question in our research regarding the time of occurrence of the incest. There is a tendency to believe that incest befalls younger women, mostly unmarried. We realize that such an issue cannot be addressed through direct questions alone but calls for longer and deeper interviews, which we recommend for future research.

Social status	Unmarried	Engaged	Married	Divorced	Unknown	Total
No	11	5	49	8	1	74
%	15	7	66	11	1	100

3. Harassment on the Street

64% of women said they experienced sexual harassment on the street, while 34% didn't and 2% did not reply to that question.

Personal experience	Yes	No	No reply	Total
No	806	424	31	4261
%	64	34	2	100

4. Harassment in the work place

144 women (12%) said they were personally subjected to some form of sexual harassment at work. Their educational level ranged between high school and post university degree.

Personal experience	Yes	No	No reply	Total
No	144	1074	42	1260
%	12	85	3	100

Part IV

Attitude towards a legislation against domestic violence

This part of the questionnaire was the most important regarding the campaign organized by El Nadim Center since 2005 regarding the need for a national legislation that criminalizes domestic violence and treats it like all other violations which call for legal and judicial intervention in favor of the assaulted.

Just as the first research in 1994 was met with a counter campaign from inside and outside the media, claiming that violence against women was not part of our culture, and, ironically and in contradiction with the first argument, that Egyptian women do not object to that violence, some of them even like it.. the current campaign was met with a similar campaign accusing us of being aliens in our own culture. We were accused of seeking to disrupt families and break homes. Some with quite a sick imagination said we wanted to plant cameras in bedrooms to monitor husbands' conducts!! The least we can say to those voices is to look around, to visit the courts and police stations and casualty rooms in hospitals and to observe for themselves the women who seek refuge in those places after their patience and endurance wears off. They come with blue eyes, broken ribs, all forms of injuries and they frequently begin to file complaints when the violence extends to involve the children. Then we can have a serious discussion of whether or not we need that legislation.

Once again, we want to clarify that we are not after breaking homes. Women are the most keen to keep their families together, much more keen than those voices who do not see in their suffering more than a disruption of the alleged "social harmony" and who view in every criticism a defamation of our country and our culture which needs a lot of amendment and sorting out.

We do not seek to break homes. On the contrary. We wish to see our homes thrive in happiness, harmony and respect for both women and men, young and old. We wish to see couples live together because they want to, because they love each other and not because one of them is afraid or oppressed or dreading being homeless or fearing the loss of the children. We look upon marriage as a relation of partnership that continues as long as both parties want and respect the provisions of the contract that brought them together. The marriage contract is a contract like any other. And like any other contract it has provisions. This is not an invention of ours. There are those who say that the marriage contract is sacred. To that we reply that this sacredness is mere fantasy. The contract as it stands now has several financial provisions and may include others. In each and every religion there are acts which justify the termination of that contract. However, the fact that it is not sacred does not mean that it should be devoid of respect, values and importance. Since we deeply believe in the value of human dignity and happiness we argue that a relationship between a man and a woman would be happier, more stable and supportive if each knew his/her rights and limits and accepted the fact that personal freedom ends when it encroaches on the freedoms of others.

Violence is one form of that encroachment. It is a violation and a crime whether committed by a man or a woman, whether committed against adults or children. It reduces the humanity of the aggressor. Gender violence is not "the nature of things". It is a conduct that enjoys the impunity granted by a society where the balance of power between men and women is unjust, feeding on a patriarchal and male centered interpretation of religious texts and local culture.

The following two tables present the attitude of our sample of women regarding the legislation we have advocated.

Our results show that most of the women (84%) supported the idea. It is noteworthy that the number of those who said they may use it, if it existed, was less than that of those who agreed to it (70%). Examining the different variables we found that 32% who agreed but said they would not use it, have not been subjected to violence in their private lives. The remainder of those 70% said there situation would not permit them to use such a legislation but they wish if would be there for their daughters in the future.

Do you agree to a legislation against domestic violence against women	No.	%
Yes	1055	84
No	198	15
Don't know	8	1
Total	1261	100

Would you use it if it existed?	No.	%
Yes	878	70
No	349	28
No reply	20	1
Don't know	14	1
Total	1261	100

Supporters were highest in number in all groups according to social status, except for young women who were not formally engaged yet but had a relation with a significant other. This result is expected, since the romanticism of the relationship, experienced by a couple outside all social regulations, usually does not foresee the social dictates and division of roles that characterize the formalization of the relationship.

We found no significant differences between the two groups regarding the duration of marriage (married women, divorcees, widows).

Social status	% supporters	% non supporters
Married	83.2	16
Average duration of marriage	16 yrs	12 yrs
Divorced	84.3	15.6
Average duration of marriage	8.6 yrs	10 yrs
Widowed	80	18
Average duration of marriage	22.7 yrs	27 yrs
Unmarried	84.5	15
Engaged	88	11.9
In a relation	33.3	66.6

Nor was there a significant difference between both groups regarding educational level. Supporters outnumbered non supporters across all educational levels.

Educational level	% supporters	% non supporters
Illiterate	76.8	22.8
Primary	81.3	17.4
Preparatory	89.7	10.3
Secondary	84.3	15.5
University	84.2	14.4
Post university	93.5	6.5
Unknown	90	10

The same was found regarding the occupation.

Educational level	% supporters	% non supporters
Housewife	81.2	17.8
Civil servant	85.1	14.4
Professional	90.2	9.8
Worker	86.7	13.3
Student	87	13
Not working	50	50
Unknown	92.3	7.7
Other	85.7	14.3

Comparison between supporters and non supporters of the legislation.

There was no significant difference between the average ages of women in both groups.
There was no significant difference between the distribution of social status among the two groups. Supporters had on average a longer duration of marriage but the difference was not statistically significant. Nor was there a difference in the number of children.
Regarding education there was significantly more illiterate women among the non supporters, and of women of post university degrees among supporters. Other differences were not significant.
As regards the occupation women working for wage were more among those who supported the law, while housewives were more among those who did not support the idea.

	% supporters		% non supporters
	No	%	No	%
No (%)	1055	84	189	15
Age	16 - 75		16 - 70
Average age	32.63		31.9
Social status
Single	180	17	32	16
In a relation	3	0	2	1
Engaged	89	8	12	6
Married	673	64	130	66
Divorced	70	7	13	7
Widowed	40	4	9	5
Duration of marriage	1 - 52		0.5 - 40
No. of children	0 - 8		0 - 9
Education
Illiterate	182	17	54	27
Primary	119	11	26	13
Preparatory	114	11	13	7
Secondary	315	30	58	29
University	246	23	42	21
Post university	72	8	5	3
Occupation
Housewife	497	47	113	57
Civil servant	326	31	55	28
Worker	104	10	16	8
Student	66	6	10	5
Professional	37	4	4	2
None	1	0	0	0

In addition to illiteracy there was one important variable which was significantly correlated with the attitude towards the proposed legislation: Personal Experience. 80% of supporters (840 out of 1055) have been personally subjected to domestic violence as compared to 74% of those who didn't. (146 out of 198).

Personal experience of domestic violence	% supporters		% non supporters
Personal experience of domestic violence	No	%	No	%
Yes	840	80	146	74
No	202	19	51	26
No reply	13	1	1	1
Total	1055	100	198	100

Part V

Female Genital Mutilation

This last section of the questionnaire was not planned at the beginning of the research, but was requested by CDA workers who reviewed the questionnaire. Since many of them are involved in awareness raising activities in the reproductive health field they requested that the questionnaire include one or two questions that address the attitude towards FGM.

Attitude towards FGM	No	%
Wrong	721	57
Right	477	38
Don't know	27	2
It's the doctor's decision	18	1
Depends	3	0
No reply	13	1
Total	1261	100

A positive indicator in the results is that those who oppose FGM outnumber those who still believe it should be done (57% versus 38%), which may be a gratifying result for the efforts of those NGOs. There are still women who have not made up their minds regarding FGM and doctors remain a reference for those women, indicating that doctors are a worthwhile target group of reproductive health activists.

We drew a comparison between the two groups who clearly supported or clearly denounced FGM.

The group rejecting FGM were younger in age.

	Agree to FGM		Refuse FGM		Total
No	477	40%	721	60%	1200
Average age	33.9		31.2

The attitude towards FGM seemed to correlate with the level of education, supporters for the maintenance of the practice being higher among the illiterate and primary school group and less in all other educational levels. Among women with post university degrees non supporters of FGM were double as many as supporters.

	Agree to FGM		Refuse FGM
Education	No	%	No	%
Illiterate	126	26	106	15
Primary	68	14	72	10
Preparatory	45	9	74	10
Secondary	137	29	217	30
University	84	18	194	27
Post University	17	4	58	8
Total	477	100	721	100

The age variable was felt again in the comparison between the two groups regarding their social status. Women who opposed the practice were highest among the unmarried group of women and lower among women who were married or have been married (including divorcees and windows). It is difficult to conclude an association between marriage and FGM and we assume for the time being that the difference is related to the age of the women, where younger women are more open to new information and more ready to correct older ones.

	Agree to FGM		Refuse FGM
Social status	No	%	No	%
Married	327	69	444	62
Single	49	10	150	21
Engaged	33	7	62	9
Divorced	37	8	43	6
Widow	30	6	20	3
In a relation	1	0	2	0
Total	477	100	721	100

Conclusion

In conclusion of this presentation we wish to repeat that this research does not represent all women in Egypt. However, neither did it address one sector to the exclusion of others. Women who generously filled those questionnaires came from various social, educational and occupational backgrounds. Some of them have suffered violence, some didn't. some of them belong to groups targeted by CDAs and some have not been connected to any developmental work. Although the sample is not representative, we cannot ignore the importance of the indicators revealed: the percentage of women suffering violence in their own homes is too high to consider the matter resolved.. the opposing voices which were raised at the time when we presented the proposed draft legislation to parliament are still strong and there are still many who wish to surround the crime of domestic violence with a shield of silence and shame under the pretext of privacy, tradition and public order.

The findings of this research indicate that there remains a lot to be done and more efforts are needed. The women who have spoken out about domestic violence in this research, even those who did not agree to the idea of a legislation, have challenged the notion that domestic violence is a private matter, not to be talked about. They have spoken and again moved us a few more steps on the road to a life that is more just, a life free of violence and discrimination.

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