Millions of women worldwide suffer at the hands of their violent husbands. Many of them continue to remain silent about their ordeal and even when they report the matter, it sometimes proves futile and probably leads to more battering. Women and domestic violence is not new and throughout the years, many women who live in violent households are in constant fear of attack from the person who is supposed to love them and where they are supposed to feel most safe ? the home. Another problem comes from the fact that the perpetrator is given sympathy rather the other way round. Such statements as ?that is the way men are? or ?just try to put up with it? are all too common and as a result of this misdirected sympathy, women and domestic violence issues continue to be a big problem in many countries, even in the developed ones.
The United Nations Declaration of Violence Against Women which includes women and domestic violence defines it as ?any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats to such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.? The declaration continues to show that this violence can either be physical, psychological or sexual occurring in the general community and family. Examples of these forms of violence include traditional practices that are harmful to women such as female genital mutilation, marital rape and general wife-beating.
Women and domestic violence studies have shown that men who are violent to their mates are not alike. Some men may become violent sporadically out of external factors and may have no history of abuse. On the other end of the scale are men who have developed a chronic pattern of abuse and in most cases, these men feel little or no remorse to their abusive pattern against their mates. In any case, all types of physical abuses are serious and are inexcusable. There can simply be no such thing as ?acceptable abuse?.
Consider also the fact that the issue of women and domestic violence has been allowed to tolerate from the fact that even though most men do not abuse their spouses, they have an irrational thinking that hitting a woman is acceptable and this is not in itself violence. As a result, what might be called mild forms of violence continue. Indeed, it has to be reminded that a man who abuses his wife is no less a criminal from a man who assaults a total stranger.
