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WIFE ABUSE IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2009

KOUSTUV DALAL ,
FAZLUR RAHMAN  and
BJARNE JANSSON
KOUSTUV DALAL
Affiliation:
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Center for Medical Technology Assessment and Division of Social Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Linkoping University, Sweden
FAZLUR RAHMAN
Affiliation:
Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
BJARNE JANSSON
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Social Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
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Summary

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health and gender problem, especially in low-income countries. The study focused on verbal abuse, physical abuse and abuse by restricting food provision to wives by their husbands by victim and perpetrator characteristics, emphasizing the socioeconomic context of rural Bangladesh. Using a cross-sectional household survey of 4411 randomly selected married women of reproductive age, the study found that a majority of the respondents are exposed to verbal abuse (79%), while 41% are exposed to physical abuse. A small proportion (5%) of the women had suffered food-related abuse. Risk factors observed were age of the wife, illiteracy (of both victims and perpetrators), alcohol misuse, dowry management, husband's monetary greed involving parents-in-law, and wife's suspicions concerning husband's extramarital affairs. Well-established risk factors for wife abuse, along with dowry and husband's monetary greed, have a relatively high prevalence in rural Bangladesh.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , September 2009 , pp. 561 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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