Domestic violence against women

Although in some cases husbands complain of violence by their wives, in the vast majority of cases it is the wife who is exposed to violence, as the weaker partner in the marital relationship.

Violence against women and children is a phenomenon with social, economic and psychological implications that substantively affects the coming generations, their social relationships and productive capacities. The degree of a man’s violence is heavily dependent on his inability or reluctance to settle disputes or problems through discussion. Many men seek to justify their resort to violence on such baseless pretexts as disciplining the wife, correcting her conduct and deterring her from wrongdoing; sometimes they also feel that this is a right protected legally and supported religiously.

Statistics issued by different research centres and departments of sociology and anthropology in Egypt reveal that the breakdown of family life and des­truction of the family is usually caused by the man; that domestic violence is usually carried out by the man; and that desertion, abandonment and divorce usually occur at the will of the man. Across all social classes it is common for women to put up with a lot from their husbands in order to preserve the family and keep it stable; moreover, the woman cannot resolve the problem of marital violence as she has nowhere to seek refuge. Thus many women put up with humiliation in their marriage for fear otherwise of having to leave their homes.

This brief overview has sought to describe the key factors of the social context within which the discussions on the personal status law were set, and where the opinions on and awareness of the law were formed. It is to those discussions that we now turn.