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| Mexican students perform 'El violador eres tu' (The rapist is you) during a demonstration on March 5 against gender violence and patriarchy at the Jesuit University of Guadalajara as part of the run-up to International Women's Day on March 8. (Photo: AFP) |
"I accept it as a logical consequence when my husband beats me up for making mistakes" — this may sound harrowingly shocking to sane men and women but it is what many married women in Bangladesh believe, according to a recent national study.
About 25 percent of wives consider beatings by their husbands logical for making trivial mistakes or trying to exercise their rights, such as by leaving the house without the husband's permission, failing to take care of children properly, arguing with her husband, cooking badly and disagreeing to sexual intercourse, according to a 2019 study by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Whether the study reflects reality can be a topic for debate but it is well known that Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of domestic violence. A BBS study in 2013 found that more than 80 percent of married women face physical and mental abuse by husbands and in-laws in their lifetime.
Domestic abuse is a very common form of violence against women all over the world. After rape and sexual assaults, domestic violence is another major driver that results in up to 35 percent of women facing various forms of violence globally in their lifetime, according to UN Women.
When it comes to largely conservative and male-dominated societies in regions such as South Asia and much of Africa, violence against women is a common and tragic everyday reality.
