AMMAN — Almost one- third of women around the world have experienced one form of violence, and efforts should be exerted to combat this phenomenon, international and local experts said on Thursday.
Susanne Eberstein, first deputy speaker of the Swedish parliament, said no community is immune from this and the problem cannot be solved with silence.
The politician added that even in her country, women are still reluctant to report gender- based violence.
“We need more than a law to address the issue. It takes courage [too],” Eberstein said.
“Gender-based violence is not a family business, it is a crime and together we must challenges abuse,” Eberstein said at a roundtable discussion organised by the embassy of Sweden in Amman and Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation in Jordan.
In addition to its negative effects on society in general, violence against women has a harmful psychological impact on children who witness it.
Eva Abu Halawa, the executive director of MIZAN human rights group, noted that although Jordan has gone a long way in combating violence against women, some still justify it, and there are no accurate figures on women who are victims of abuse.
Despite having a law to protect victims of violence, shelters to host them and a police department to deal with their cases, the law is not fully implemented, Abu Halawa said.
Since 2010, out of 18,000 violence cases, only 10 were referred to reconciliation committees, she noted.
With violence being considered a “crime”, most abused women refuse to report cases because they do not want their husbands or relatives to be sent to jail.
A recent study conducted by the Department of Statistics in Jordan showed that 70 per cent of Jordanian women accept at least one reason as a justification for wife beating
The study published as part of the 2012 National Population and Family Health Survey showed that 65 per cent of women are most likely to agree that “if a woman has affairs with other men, it justifies wife beating,” while 2 per cent believe that a man has the right to beat his wife if she burns the food and 6 per cent if she argues with him.
According to the survey, 38 per cent of women agree that it is justified for a husband to beat his wife if she insults him, and 25 per cent believe that wife beating is warranted if a woman does not feed her husband.
