Inequality in Domestic Violence, Case Study: Egypt and Jordan

Abstract

Domestic violence refers to “aggressive behaviors that adults use against their intimate partners,”(Holden, 2003) and includes the following: physical aggression (e.g., beating, slapping, hitting, and kicking etc.), psychological abuse (e.g., acts of intimidating, belittling, and humiliating etc.), sexual violence (e.g., forced sexual congress and other forms of sexual abuse), controlling behaviors (e.g., restricting a partner’s communication with family and friends, monitoring a partner’s actions, and restricting a partner’s access to sources of information; WHO, 2005). According to two studies in North America and Europe, both males and females experience physical and psychological domestic violence: however, males deploy physical violence more harmfully, and are likelier to hurt and commit sexually assault; violence by females tends to be stimulated by fear or self-defensive, and female violence results in particularly harmful psychological outcomes (Langhinrichsen-Rohling, 2010; Straus, 2004; Swan et al., 2008). According to Morse (1995), relative to men, women likelier to experience domestic violence, and to sustain more severe injuries in that context. As a result, domestic violence is an asymmetric phenomenon, and in most cases, adversely affects women. Domestic violence against women is a worldwide problem, largely because of its health consequences for women, their children, their families, and society as a whole. According to the April 2018 report from the World Bank, 35% of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of intimate partners or men who are not partners. Among African women, the lifetime prevalence of physical domestic violence ranges from 17% to 48% (Jewkes et al., 2001; Kishor and Johnson, 2004); in Colombia, Peru, and Nicaragua, the proportion of married women who have experienced physical violence ranges from 40% to 52% (Ellsberg et al., 1999; Kishor and Johnson, 2004). In South Asia, lifelong levels of domestic violence against women are equally high (Koenig et al., 2003).