Violence against women: Unpacking a taboo

My neighbour, a working man and father of two, would often throw objects at his wife in feats of anger. On the rare occasions that his wife's scars would be visible despite her various attempts at hiding them, my house-help, a woman in her early forties, would reflect—almost nonchalantly— on how she had faced worse. I wasn't old enough to encroach further, nor mature enough to comprehend the magnitude of this injustice. 

As I grew up, I realised this phenomenon is commonplace, but, surprisingly, rarely talked about. The seemingly strong women would be extra cautious about hiding those scars, would put an extra effort into a smile, and would quietly leave the conversation if—God forbid—anyone asked if everything was okay. The cycle bled through from mothers to children. 

The world average of women experiencing intimate partner violence in the last 12 months is 13%, the statistics are a striking 37% for women living in countries classified by the Sustainable Development Goals as least developed countries.

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They would learn, as children often do, to endure the trauma and carry it for years to come. What society fails to grasp is that a single instance of violence, when a father turns against a mother, cannot simply be forgotten. 

That single moment is enough to instill into the child's mind generations of gender inequality, fear of failed relationships, lack of faith in family, and above all, crippling sense of self worth.

It certainly isn't okay for a man to hit his wife. But a day spent ignoring it is a day spent encouraging it. 

Growing up in a country like Bangladesh, home to 170 million people struggling for survival despite the many challenges that often accompany developing countries, I have witnessed firsthand the pervasive and distressing atrocities that the marginalised people endure regularly. 

While poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and scarcity of clean water are often discussed as pervasive issues in such countries, there remains an aspect that remains largely unspoken: the prevalence of violence against women. This deeply troubling phenomenon, which affects countless lives, often goes unnoticed and unaddressed, perpetuated by the deep-rooted stigma that surrounds it. 

According to the BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics), the rate of IPV in Bangladesh ranges from 42% to 76% across regions, and as many as 72.6% of ever-married women have endured one or more types of violence at least once in their lives by their husbands.

As per the statistics of UN Women, in 2018, an estimated one in seven women had experienced sexual or physical intimate partner violence in the last 12 months, and as of 2020, 47,000 women died at the hands of their partner. 

While the world average of women experiencing intimate partner violence in the last 12 months is 13%, the statistics are a striking 37% for women living in countries classified by the Sustainable Development Goals as least developed countries. 

The Asia-Pacific region is reported to suffer from the highest number of cases of gender based violence with more than 18,000 femicides as of 2021, and Indonesia, an Asian country with the fourth largest population in the world, had an official record of 348,446 reported cases of intimate partner violence in 2017, after which the numbers increasingly went north - and this is only the tip of the iceberg. 

The biggest problem in the domain of violence against women is the inaccuracy of data, or lack thereof, due to an absence of a proper reporting system. While enabling a reporting system is primarily a logistical issue, the larger issue is getting women to actually report the cases.  

According to the UN Women database, as many as 40% of women do not seek any help or support after they have been inflicted with violence by men. Among those who do seek help, only about 10% appeal to the police or look into formal institutions. The majority depend upon friends and family, who often either advise enduring violence or encourage silence. 

Despite the alarming statistics, it is rarely talked about - IPV remains an open secret, capable of scorching lives in its path, yet all too often, it is overlooked as people swiftly move on to the next pressing problem. 

IPV transcends social class, as women across all strata of society are conditioned to endure abuse while men are ingrained with a sense of impunity, reflecting the pervasive gender inequality that continues to afflict the world on a global scale, even in the 21st century. Not only has violence against women been normalised through generations, more often than not, the act is condoned, subtly but effortlessly making way for the next generation. 

If you look closely, the act of making allowances for men to be excused begins at home - the commonly heard phrase 'boys will be boys' or 'men will be men' is a seemingly harmless but potentially dangerous idea that subtly condones gender based violence by assigning zero guilt to boys in their formative years. 

It slowly and inadvertently creates an environment where it is acceptable for men to exercise violence on women, perpetuating the belief that men are dominant and women are submissive.

A rather interesting research has dissected masculinity and shown that this is one of the root causes of gender based violence. There are three types of masculinity, namely Dominant Traditional Masculinity, Oppressed Traditional Masculinity and New Alternative Masculinity. 

The perpetrators of gender-based violence belong to the Dominant Traditional masculinity, characterised by being violent and aggressive towards women. These are men who adhere to traditional gender norms and hold the socially accepted belief that men are superior to women. 

This theory is further suggested in another paper, which identifies the traditionalist, the pragmatist, and the egalitarian as the three diverse views of masculinity with specific ideologies on the gender hierarchy and acceptance of violence within marriage. The pragmatic saw violence as undesirable but occasionally necessary to change the wife's behaviour, but the traditionalist had the highest acceptance of violence as a tactic to defend the superior position of men inside marriage. 

Because they held that men and women are complementary to one another and are equal in every way, egalitarians could not find any justification for violence. 

Alas, we are yet to find a world where egalitarians reign supreme.  While the implications of intimate partner violence (IPV) on its immediate victims are abundantly evident, it is crucial to recognise the far-reaching impact it has on the entire lifespan of children, beginning from their formative years and extending into later stages of their lives. 

The harmful effects of IPV on women can extend to their children's health, and exposure to violence often causes children to develop psychological, social, and school problems. 

Studies in low-income countries, like Nicaragua and Bangladesh, indicate that children exposed to maternal abuse face various adverse outcomes. These include reduced immunisation rates, increased prevalence of diarrheal disease, and a higher risk of mortality before the age of five. 

The scars that violent households can leave on the overall health of children are monumental and can stretch over the years to shape their behaviours in ways that can even affect their families in later stages of life. 

The issue of violence against women, including gender based violence, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, wife abuse, and the many other terms that are used interchangeably, are not just a problem of today, but also a pressing concern of tomorrow. 

While there have been ample efforts to combat this issue globally, the issue simply is much larger than given credit for. It is high time more resources are put into place to tackle this issue so that violence against women becomes an archaic term for generations to come.

Saima Khan is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Tasmania, Australia

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.