Monday 10 December 2007

Armenia: Statistics of the Day (disturbing!)

According to UNICEF report released today, 1 in 4 surveyed women in Armenia (22%) believe that under certain circumstances, husband has the right to beat his wife. The situation is even worse in Georgia – 30%. (in Ukraine - 5%; and in Uzbekistan - 70%!)

Survey was conducted among women 15-49 yrs old.

*via Radio Liberty

Sadly, not a shocking news...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This doesn't surprise me as much. In summer I participated in an international seminar on violence against women. The participants were mainly young women from other FSU-states. Quite a few of the Armenian women (all between 19 and 24 or so) also thought that husbands had the right to beat their wives under certain circumstances. So sad!

Anonymous said...

it looks like Uzbek women really don't have much status at all! :(

Rhiannon.

artmika said...

Here is another survey with even more disturbing statistics, Violent Concerns: Survey exposes widespread domestic abuse of women, although I am not sure how different and comparable is its methodology with the one employed by UNICEF.

According to this report, "More than one in four Armenian women is a victim of domestic violence, according to a recent survey.

The study of 1,006 women across Armenia found that at least 28 per cent were subject to domestic violence and 17 per cent exposed to frequent heavy physical violence and 66 percent experiencing psychological pressure.

Sixty per cent of interviewees agreed that “domestic violence is a wide-spread problem in Armenia” and half of them said that they personally knew an average of four women who were undergoing domestic violence.

However, the survey also revealed a widespread acceptance among women of violence in the home. It found that 67 percent of women in Armenia justified the use of physical force if a woman has been unfaithful to her husband; 52 percent defended it in cases where a woman has ignored her children; and 42 per cent thought it was acceptable to use force if a woman disobeyed her husband or went somewhere without his knowledge."