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2: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

ROXANA is a vivacious, attractive mother of four children, married to a well-

respected surgeon in South America. My husband is charming with the ladies, popular with
the men, she says. But there is a dark side to Roxana’s mate, one that even their close friends
do not see. At home, he is a monster he’s intensely jealous, she adds Roxana face is etched
with anxiety as she continues her story. The problem began after we had been married just or
a few weeks. My brother and my mother visited us, and I had such a good time talking and
laughing with them. But when they left, my husband violently threw me onto the sofa, with
rage. I couldn’t believe what was happening.

Sadly, that was just the beginning of Roxana’s ordeal, for over the years, she has been
battered repeatedly. Roxana’s husband beats her, and then he apologizes profusely and
promises never to do it again. His conduct improves at least for a while. Then the nightmare
starts all again. She feared that one day, her husband’s violence will escalate further and cause
injury or even death.

Like Roxana, millions of women worldwide are suffering at the hands or violent men.
Many of them remain silent about their ordeal and some are even murdered. They think that
reporting the matters before the court for example proves futile most of the time. In any case,
violence against women is soaring and some experts say that women are more likely to be
killed by their male partners than by all other types of perpetrators combined. But what
factors, though, might cause a man to abuse physically his partner?

Risk factors for domestic violence are diverse and include alcoholism, unemployment,
drugs-addiction or any family or cultural influence. Unsurprisingly, a number of physical
abusive men were themselves raise in abusive families. According to many experts, a boy
who is raised in a violent family environment can naturally absorb his father’s contempt for
women very early in life. The boy learns that a man must always be in control of women and
that the way to get that control is to scare them, beat them and demeans them. Another
important factor is cultural influence. In some lands beating a woman is considered
acceptable, even normal and the right of a husband to beat or physically intimidate his wife is
a deeply held conviction in societies, states a United Nation report?

Awake ! November 8,