The peace and quiet of an afternoon in the small costal village was broken by a noise from one family’s household. People flocking into the road saw a man running after a woman (his wife) while throwing everything within his grasp at her, including the trash pail. One member of the research team who was visiting a nearby house at the time, observed an older man (the father of the husband) trying his best to catch up and hold the husband in order to let the wife run away to a neighbor’s house. Some neighbors also joined in to prevent additional blows. After it was all over, an older woman (the husband’s mother) began sweeping up the trash and said to those still within earshot, “I already told her that with his type of character, she should keep silent. However, she talked back anyway, so he beat her”

WHY THE SILENCE?

Reasons why women who

experience domestic

violence in Viet Nam do

not seek outside support

This study is a subset of a larger study that has been conducted from 2001 to 2004 in one District at a Central province in Viet Nam entitled

“Link between gender and sexual and reproductive health in Vietnam ”

Funded by Rockerfeller Foundation

Organized at the field-site of Population & Development International (PDI)

Author:Bui Thi Thanh Mai, MD, MSc.*Pham Vu Thien, MD, MSc.* * Nancy Luke, Ph.D. ***Sidney Ruth Schuler, Ph.D. **Tran Hung Minh MD, MSc.* *Hoang Tu Anh, MD, MSc.* *Vu Song Ha, MD, MPH* * *Consultation of Investment in Health Promotion (CIHP), VietNam**Empowerment of Women Research Program, Academy for Educational Development ((JSI-AED), US***Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, US

OUTLINES

Context

Study objectives and methods

Findings & discussionSituation of domestic violence (DV)

Factors affected the DV situation

What women do when experience with DV

Why women endure & don’t seeking outside support when experience with DC

Recommendation

CONTEXTLEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER EQUALITYPresident Ho Chi Minh stated that “Society cannot be totally free so long as women are not freed”. The First constitution (1946) state “women have equal rights with men in all aspects”Numerous laws in support of equality between men and women were passed.

Law on Marriage and Family Penal Code

Governmental structures are in place to ensure that all people’s rights, including those of women, are protected

CONTEXT (con’t)ACTIONS FOR GENDER EQUALITY

The Women’s Union, a mass organization, has worked since 1930 at various levels of society to institute change in Vietnamese women’s position. Ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1982 Replacement of the National Committee Dedicated to Women with the National Committee for Women’s Advancement in 1993 Approval of a National Action Plan for Women’s Advancement in 1997 and implementation of Action plan

CONTEXT (con’t)

STUDY SITE

A district in coastal area in the Central part of Viet Nam

There are 7 communes and 48,000 residents

Rapid development since 1994Administration: established a town

Economic: transition from a collective to a private economy;

expand from agriculture and fishing to tourism and trading

Change in labor division between men and women

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

To assess the frequency of domestic violence in the target area and factors contribute to this situation

To investigate social barriers women face in seeking institutional or legal support if they experience domestic violence

To offer recommendations for intervention programs related to domestic violence

METHODS

QUANTITATIVEHousehold survey using questionnaires.

Sample size: 465 couples in which the female partners were between 18 and 35 years of age

Sampling: randomly selected in five communes from an official list of resident couples

Interviewers: students of University.

Supervisors: principal researchers

Data analysis: EPI INFO 6.0 was used for data entry & SPSS 10.0 was used for data analysis

METHODS (con’t)QUALITATIVE

In-depth interviews (IDIs):

20 couples and 16 wives from two communes, who were selected based on a preliminary analysis of the survey data. Each person were interviewed from 2-3 times. Total: 64 IDIs with females & 43 IDIs males

10 IDIs with key informants

Focus group discussions (FGDs):

16 FGDs were conducted, 6 with males, 10 with females.

2 FGDs with key informants

Data analysis: transcripts of tape records and notes were analyzed with the support of SPData software

METHODS (cont’t)

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

Follow World Health Organization guidelines for designing studies of gender-based violence (WHO, 2001)

Closely followed principles of informed consent, safety, confidentiality.

Interview all husband and wife pairs separately by same-sex interviewers

Interviewers were carefully trained with respect ethical issues.

SITUATION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women defines domestic violence as “violence that occurs within the private sphere, generally between individuals who are related through intimacy, blood or law”. Domestic violence includes physical, psychological, or economic abuse of a woman by her partner or ex-partner or by another person within the home or family.This study: Domestic violence referred to physical violence (danh)

IN STUDY AREA

“Have you ever beat* your wife?” Yes: 50.1%“Has your husband ever become so angry that he beat* you?” Yes: 36.8% “Have you been beat* during last year?”

Yes 14.6% *“Beating” (danh) includes:

86.4%: slapping17.8%: punching10%: kicking

IN OTHER AREAS

20-25% (Population & Development. Viet Nam News, May 7, 2004)

IN THE REGION (Source: United Nations Development Fund for Women- www.unifem-eseasia.org/resources/others/domesticviolence/PDF/Vaw%20in%20Asia.pdf)

The prevalence of physical domestic violence in East and Southeast Asia ranges from 10% in the Philippines to 67 % in Papua New Guinea.In Korea, 38-42 % of wives were physically assaulted by their husbands during 1988-1992In Malaysia, 39 % of women were hit by a partner in 1989In Thailand, 44 % of women in intimate relationships have been battered by their partners.In Cambodia, 23 % of women suffered from physical, sexual, and/or psychological violence in the home in 2000, compared to 16 percent in 1994

FACTORS RELATED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE(This part use data from Nancy Luke et al.

Exploring Couple Attributes and Attitudes and Marital Violence in Vietnam)

Economic status of household

26.6%

44%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

High(n=177)

Low (n=283)

Wivesever hit

(p<0.001)

High: teachersofficials

Husbands: 36 Wife: 59

Low: businessfarmers seasonal labor fishingHousewives

Husband:406; Wife: 427

38.90%

13.90%

39.20%

20.30%

Low

High

Husband'soccupation

Wife'soccupation

Occupation status

Age difference

40%43%

28%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

H<=W(n=62)

H>W 1-3(n=220)

H>W +4(n=182)

Wivesever hit

(p<0.01)

Educational level

44.4

51.9

37.1

38.6

22.2

22.8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Primary(n=77) Secondary (n=264) High school (n=123)

Wife

Husband

(p<0.001)

Education difference

50

34.6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

H<W (n=62) H=>W (n=402)

DV

(p<0.05)

Gender attitude index (0-6)

32.8

44.4

41.1

36

18.1

39.838.1

43.4

21.6

12.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

0 1 2 3 4 to 6 Husband

Wife

(p<0.05)

WHAT WOMEN DO WHEN THEY EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

Most of women do nothing (65%) or

solve problem by themselves (17.9%)

Seek support from family members and friends when conflict can be solved (3.5%)

Seek legal interventions when conflict cannot be solved in the family

WHY WOMEN ENDURE AND DON’T SEEK OUTSIDE SUPPORT WHEN THEY EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

Women don’t dare to disclose their experience with domestic violence due to community and individual perception of marriage and gender.

They are:

“A relationship between husband and wife is an internal family matter”

“Closing the door to teach each other”

“If their quarrels happen inside their house, they should solve them by themselves because the neighbors don’t come. If they beat each other, a neighbor must come to intervene.” (woman, aged 27)

“Women must endure”

“It is acceptable for men to get angry”Agreed: women 91.8%

men 67.1%

“It is acceptable for women to get angry”Agreed: women 44.7%

men 46.6%

“I think that I must endure. If I talk back when he is angry, he will slap, or kick or throw away both fish and my body” (woman, aged 32)

“Show the kind face to the family”

“It reflects badly on a woman if she talks about her problems with people outside her family.”

Agreed: women 53.5% men 55.1%

“I hide, I engrave it in my memory only and don’t talk to my parents. If it is discussed, my husband’s face is lose and they would say that he beats me because I am cheeky.”

(woman, aged 34)

“It is acceptable for beating wife”“ A good husband does not feed his wife sweets. A good husband beats his wife”. Vietnamese folk saying

Acceptable reasons According to men

(n=465) %

According to woman (n=465)

%

At least one circumstance to justify husband hitting wife

62.6% 80.4%

When she disobeys him 7.3% 6.5%

When she talks or acts unduly and offends him or his family

35.9% 57.6%

When she has a love affair 14.2% 3.9%

“It is acceptable for beating wife” (cont’)

“Cases in which the husband is angry and gives the wife a slap when she makes a cheeky remark to his parents is not violence. This slap awakes the wife to her sense of duty.” (man, aged 26)

“I told my wife that she and my children should run away when I come home unsteady. If they talk, I will beat them immediately”

(drunk man, aged 31)

Preservation of “the happy family” for children

Many women endure violence because they don’t want their children to recognize the conflict.

“If a woman wants a divorce, they don’t think about economic consequences or other husbands. They only think about children because without a father, their children will unhappy”

(FGDs- female)

Women’s awareness of and ability to utilize legal mechanisms

Women know little about the laws that protect them from maltreatment. The current social norms do not support a woman who may want to take her husband to court“A woman should not take her husband to court under any circumstance, even in the case of bleeding. If she takes him to court, she will be more shameful because her husband treats her disrespectfully because she is not good person. Anyway, people in the community would say it is too small of a matter to bring to the court. I saw many women endure being beaten by husbands. They don’t raise the issue because of shame.”

(women, aged 23)

Women’s awareness of and ability to utilize legal mechanisms (cont’)

There is a difference in the use of terms “domestic violence” and understanding by community people and the media of this term.

“Sometimes, we (the husbands) slap our wives with our hands. It hurts but it is not violence. Violence is kicking or using a stick or cane to beat her.” (man aged 30)

CONCLUSION

The community’s and women’s perceptions of domestic violence are the main reasons why women do not seek outside support. These perceptions include:

The relationship between husband and wife is an internal family matter

Show the kind face to the family

Women should endure domestic violence

It is acceptable to beat a wife

Attitudes do not support women to disclose domestic violence issues

Women’s awareness of the law

RECOMMENDATION

Domestic violence prevention and intervention programs should take into account the barriers that prohibit women from seeking outside support to achieve greater impact.

For example, programs should not only target women, but also men, older people, and young people. Content of the programs should also condemn the violence acts against women.

Education for improving gender attitude for both men and women are important

RECOMMENDATION (Cont’)

Legal institutions should establish ways or programs to increase the accessibility of women to legal institutions in order to provide the greater protection for them.

The program should not only focus on changing laws to protect women, but also on dissemination of laws to wider a population at the grassroots level.

Wife

Domestic Violence

Marriage

Education

Law & Policies

Husband

All people in the CommunityFamily members

Health

Gender equality

Economic

Culture

More information about this study could be found at websites:

http://apha.confex.com/apha/132am/techprogram/paper_78881.htmhttp://apha.confex.com/apha/132am/techprogram/paper_90497.htmhttp://www.pstc.brown.edu/fac_core/lukevietnam.pdfhttp://paa2004.princeton.edu/download.asp?submissionId=41206