Attitude and Perception of Women on Domestic Violence Practised by Husbands in Ethiopia

Bayissa, R. (2020) ‘Attitude and Perception of Women on Domestic Violence Practised by Husbands in Ethiopia’, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences International Journal (LASSIJ), 4(1), pp. 255–270.

In the introductory part, the author indicated that domestic and gender-based violence is the most pervasive human rights violation deeply rooted in gender inequality and a common global phenomenon with varied degrees. It’s evident that girls and women are the primary victims of GBV, however, boys and men are also the direct and indirect victims. It affects the health and psychology of a woman including their self-esteem and confidence. As women constituted half of the world’s population, they are not the only victim of sexual harassment, and the impact is wide to the extent of affecting the country’s development. Studies indicate that domestic violence is considered/perceived as a mechanism through which a man corrects his wife, and this is considered the right of men to control the behaviour of his wife. In Ethiopia also 50-60% of women experienced domestic violence in their life and among these sexual violence is the most prominent one. In this study, gender-based violence is defined to include intimate partner violence and non-partner violence, rape, violent acts including physical, psychological, economic, and sexual violence, exploitive or coercive acts, and harmful traditional practices.

With the primary goal of conducting an in-depth study that will help to understand the attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence, the author used an explanatory research design. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select the study site (i.e. Bate, Haramaya, and Awaday), and a convenient sampling technique is used to select respondents for interviews and  Focus  Group  Discussion  (FGD). As a theoretical framework, the author has employed the feminist theory, one of the most liberal and radical concepts of feminism.

According to the finding, violence against women is the most pervasive phenomenon in the study area. The study found that though women are aware of the violence it’s considered a cultural practice and compromised in many families as a corrective measure. If the man fails to beat his wife, the community cannot accept him as a man, beating a wife is seen as one of the criteria to identify a strong husband from the weak one. This is due to the patriarchal structure in which women are expected to be submissive to any action taken by their husbands and refrain from referring family issues to outsiders.  The study also indicated that marital rape is also most prevalent in the study area. However, due to privacy, it is rather kept secret whereby the victim women are exposed to both physical and psychological damages. The outcome of this study indicated, women who were victims of sexual based violence usually prefer to keep silent as the best strategy to maintain the relationship they had with their husbands and keep peace in the family for the best interests of their children. Even if they attempt to take the serious case to the court they fear, the situation might get worse and become out of control which will bring divorce which they don’t prefer.

Thus the author argued that since domestic violence is perceived as an acceptable and justifiable practice, it needs an intervention to change the common attitude through inclusive awareness creation for both women and men. Such will be effective through resource mobilisation by non-governmental organisations and allocation of budget by the government. Moreover, legal and policy reform shall be made to provide appropriate remedies for any incident.