Dr Matiur Rahman :
Domestic violence against women is a major social problem worldwide and also in our country. A study revealed that despite facing domestic violence a good number of the victim women of domestic violence did not seek help from any formal or informal sources for several reasons.
The study revealed that most of the abused women never told anyone about their experiences due to fear of jeopardizing family honour, a stigma that will damage women’s reputations. However, women only revealed violence in cases of severe injury, murder threats, and harm caused to children.
The study also depicted that, a large majority of the respondents (89.4%) did not seek any help from any type of formal agency thinking about the welfare of the family and children. In our society, married women think that their father-in-law’s house is their last shelter. From childhood, they came to know it from their parents and other relatives.
After marriage, if her husband becomes a perpetrator and starts to abuse but they cannot express it to anybody. She thinks that if she tells it to anyone her husband would be more aggressive and ultimately it would lead to divorce. If such an extreme situation, she thinks the family would be destroyed and her son and daughter would fall into a helpless situation. So, considering these most of the abused women in our society do not express or share their miseries with anyone.
A large number of female respondents (87.1%) have mentioned that victims of domestic violence do not take help and support from any formal or informal agencies due to the criticism of community people. Women in our society believe that to keep the family honour on the right track is their responsibility. If they fail to maintain it, they will be blamed. Although their husband or their male counterparts torture them, they have to remain silent. Otherwise, community people will know it and will criticize them and the honour of the family will be demolished. So, due to the fear of criticism of the community people, abused women keep them silent. They never express their miseries and sufferings to any formal or informal sources.
After marriage, few women get support from their parents’ house. In the present research, a large majority of the female respondents (92.9%) think that women who become victims of domestic violence could not get any help from their parent’s house. Many female members cannot keep close ties with their parents’ house after marriage. In such cases, the victim woman could not get any support from their parents. Sometimes, parents are too poor to provide support to their victim daughters.
Most of the respondents (90%) think that if the victim women inform about their torture then the degree of torture would be increased. A husband does not expect his wife discloses her condition to anybody. If she does so then-husband becomes angrier and increases the degree of torture to his wife. So due to the fear of further torture they do not share it with anybody.
Around 87.1% of the female respondents of the present research also think that as most of the victim women do not possess their property or money so they cannot take help from any formal sources. Most of the women in our society depend on their husband’s income. Since they do not earn or own the property they cannot raise their voice strongly and cannot protest against their husband or other male members.
In the present study, a good number of female respondents (85.9%) were found not to take any help due to the unavailability of any service providing agency nearby. In our country, women’s support Centre is very few. In the rural areas, there is no such institutional support Centre for domestic violence victims. For this reason, victim women do not get any support or help.
Around 90.6% of the female respondents mentioned that the service providing agencies sometimes could not deliver quality services. For example, if a victim woman gets admission into the government hospital located in the Upazila or District level she is not adequately dealt with male doctors. Reluctant attitude or Doctor and Nurse, unavailability of medicine and other facilities make such situation worse.
An overwhelming majority of the female respondents (92.9%) believe that victim women are harassed by the police and the court. Police and court do not favour the victim woman in our country. However, if a victim woman submits a complaint to the police station or in the court then she is to face so many procedures that make the victim frustrated. Moreover, some police members do harass the victims. For this reason, the victim women do not want to disclose their sufferings and not get help and services from any formal sources.
A good majority of the respondents (85.2%) also mentioned that the victims do not know from where they can get the services. For this reason, they do not get any help or services. As many of our rural people are illiterate and their mobility is limited so they do not know exactly from where they can get the services. For this reason, they could not get help and services from any formal sources.
A large majority of the respondents (94.1%) also pointed out that sometimes victim women do not submit any complaints or do not take any other help due to the fear of divorce. They think if they are informed about the torture on them then her husband will divorce her.
The study suggested various ways to overcome this situation such as raising mass awareness, making support services available for victim women of domestic violence and applying policies and acts strictly against the perpetrators and so on.
(The writer is a researcher and
development worker).
