Domestic Violence Against Women and Associated Factors in Ethiopia; Systematic Review

Semahegn, A. and Mengistie, B. (2015) ‘Domestic violence against women and associated factors in Ethiopia; Systematic review’, Reproductive Health, 12(78), pp. 1–12

The author commenced by defining what is domestic violence. In doing so the definition provided by the World Health Organisation for Violence is adopted. Thus violence is an intentional use of physical force/power whether it’s actual/threatened to harm oneself or another person which might result in bodily injury, death, and psychological harm. Domestic violence is then any violence that is committed against the victim by known perpetrators. It’s a serious human rights violation that results in affecting women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health. In Ethiopia also domestic violence is a common phenomenon both in urban and rural settings whereby approximately one out of ten women become victims of abduction, early forced marriage, rape, and marital rape. Moreover, around 68-81% of women agree that wife beating is justifiable if the husband has a reason for that and around 88% of rural and 69% of urban women agree that their husbands have the right to beat them. The author appreciated policy reforms made by the Ethiopian government including revision of the family code, emphasis on women’s rights under the FDRE Constitution, reenactment of the Criminal Code, and other institutional reforms. However, domestic violence against women by their husbands, and intimate partner is still continued to be a public health problem for women and results in adverse social, economic, emotional, health, sexual, and reproductive health outcomes.

With a primary goal of systematic assessment of the domestic violence prevalence rate in Ethiopia and its associated factors, the author used a systematic review of various research works published in the area. The author also used inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify eligible documents for the study.

According to the finding, more than half (50.5%) of women in Ethiopia experienced domestic violence including physical and psychological acts of violence in their lifetime. Regarding factors associated with domestic violence, the study indicated that the problem directly relates to different sociodemographic characteristics of the victim and perpetrator. Among these, are husband alcohol consumption, khat chewing, family history of violence, partner education, decision-making power, and residence in which rural women are more exposed to violence than women who resides in urban areas. Age and literacy also determine exposure to domestic violence. Accordingly, women age less than 18 at first sex or marriage are at a high exposure to violence. Women’s literacy is negatively associated with domestic violence whereby women with lower educational status are more exposed to domestic violence. The study also outlined that due to traditional gender norms that support wife beating, the majority of the victim women accept wife beating as legitimate and the right of the husband.

Generally, the author argued that any policy-making organ, program designing, and implementing authority, and all other stakeholders shall establish an appropriate strategy to prevent and control violence against women. As women beating has been recognized as the right of the husband, a community-based program that aimed at preventing and punishing wife beating shall be designed by integrating domestic violence with a health extension program.