In the previous article, we discussed the reality of woman in North American society and the violence to which she is subjected. In this article, we will complete the file of domestic violence against women in the West.
Women in Britain
In Britain in 1992, more than 50% of murdered women were murdered by their husband or partner. In that year domestic violence rose by 46%. It was also found that 25% of women undergo physical abuse at the hands of their husbands or male partners. British police receive approximately 100,000 calls annually which are complaints of physical abuse against wives or female partners. It is known that many of these women do not report such incidents to the police except after having been subjected to physical abuse more than ten times. Jean Lewis, an expert in this field, states that one to two thirds of divorce cases take place because of domestic violence which is mainly the result of consuming intoxicants and moral deterioration.
According to a questionnaire whose results were published in Britain, the rate of violence against women is on the increase. In a questionnaire that included 7,000 women, 28% of the women surveyed said that they were assaulted by their husbands. According to another British report, many husbands physically abuse their wives for no apparent reason, and this represents 77% of the incidents of physical abuse. In the same report, a woman mentioned that her husband continued physically abusing her for three and a half years from the beginning of their marriage. She said, “If I said anything to him after beating me, he would beat me again, and so I chose to remain silent. He does not beat in one way only, instead he hurts me by employing all methods of beating, like punching, kicking and hitting my head against the wall, and he does not care if he kicks me in sensitive areas of my body.” Some men extinguish cigarettes on their wives’ bodies or tie their wives with chains and leave them imprisoned in a room for long hours.
Women’s organizations try to provide shelters as well as financial and psychological aid for these victims. Joan Jonker leads a campaign of this type. For the past twelve years, she has helped thousands of people who have been subjected to domestic violence. She has collected donations that are estimated to be £70,000 to run these shelters and established the first of these centers in Manchester in 1971. After that, such centers spread throughout Britain and now amount to one hundred and fifty. 6 to 62% of females who visit such centers experience sexual abuse during their childhood.
Women in France
In France, almost two million women are subjected to physical abuse. As police confront this phenomenon, they have stated that this includes around 10% of French families. The government has announced that it will start an awareness campaign to prevent domestic violence from becoming the norm.
Mrs. Michèle André, the French Secretary of State for Women's Rights, said, “Sometimes even animals are treated better than women. If a man hits a dog in the street, someone will complain to the Animal Care Society, but if a man hits his wife in the street, no one will move.” In a statement for Agence France-Presse (AFP), she said, “People should understand that beating up women is illegal. People should stop thinking that such an action is ordinary.” She added, “Our world acknowledges that there is someone who dominates and someone who is dominated. This kind of logic must be stopped.”
In a reportage that was published about this subject, the France Soir Newspaper quoted police officials, who said, “About 92.7% of spouse abuse takes place in cities, and 60% of rescue calls that are reported to the police come from Paris. Such calls come from women who are being mistreated by their husbands.”
The French Secretariat of State for Women's Rights stated that there are several types of domestic violence that are practiced against women: some are psychological, like threats and humiliation, and others are physical, like beating.
The Battered Women's Shelter noted that the women who are received in their organization range in age between 25 and 35 years of age, and have an average of two children. They also have a low level of education. In most cases, such women are isolated from their families and neighbors. More often than not, matters like illness, addiction to intoxicants or unemployment made the abuse practiced against them increase even more, but only a few dare to expose such violence for fear of their husbands’ revenge or due to lack of courage. When a 25-year-old woman who had tolerated her husband’s physical abuse for two years, was told to leave her house, she said, “In France we do not talk about our marital life because no one can trust his friends or any one else with his personal secrets.”
Alexander Dumas, a French writer, once compared women to slices of meat, saying, “The more you beat them the more tender they get.”