Honoring The Woman Forum DOMESTIC VIOLENCE By: Khaled H..

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE against the Woman is one of the patterns of aggressive behavior which includes various types of harm, abuse, suffering, insult, hurt, injury, mistreatment, and injustice. It happens to females (mother, wife, sister, daughter, girlfriend) inside the home by male family members or boyfriends as a result of unequal relations.  It is a social problem based on the negative image of the woman, her roles, and her status. It is an outcome of behaviors which do not respect the woman’s status, and do not care for her feelings and wishes.  It has many forms which cause deep and long lasting effects on women:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       1)Physical : Such as beating, pulling hair, slapping, pushing, holding violently, twisting arms, throwing down, punching, biting, burning, strangling, torturing, whipping, and using sharp tools in hurting. All these which cause injuries, fractures, chronic pains or symptoms of intestinal disorders or  chronic disability and or death.                                                                                                                                                                                                          2)Psychological : It is everything which affects the soul, spirit, psyche, and mind of the woman.Such as: humiliation, insult, scolding, marginalizing, deprivation of children, disdaining, ridiculing, belittling, suppressing her personality, disparaging her physical or mental ability, causing her to loose self confidence, enforcing her feeling of guilt, causing her loneliness or anxiety or worry restlessness or tension or strain, reinforcing her feeling of frustration or sense of weakness or impotence or inefficiency.                                                                                                                                                                                  3)Sexual : Any and all sexual harm, hurt, abuse, and injury by relatives and non-relatives. Or to be forced into sexual activities without her understanding for it or without her consent or her free well. It advances gradually from touching to rape. It can be also exposing the body or parts of the body or touching genitals.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4)Verbal : Cursing, insulting, name calling, blaspheming, scolding, degrading, demeaning, humiliating, scorning, offending, obscenity, foulness, vulgarity, indecency, nastiness, or comparing her with degrading or  humiliating or despicable or menial things.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               5)Economic : Such as harming her economic interest, welfare, and well-being. Preventing her from getting a job or forcing her to work, or to confiscate her salary, or depriving her of her inheritance, or registering possessions which are a result of both husband and wife employment in the name of the husband only, or to cause her financial harm that leads to her suffering from poverty or unemployment or dependency on others.                                                                                                                                                                                      6)Social : It manifests itself in restraining, limiting, restricting, holding in check, hampering, and confining her interconnection opportunities, her societal participation, and her roles, or not allowing her to state her opinion and make decisions, or forcing her to serve her family and their guests, or depriving her of education, or forcing her to leave school and college or to study a certain major.                                                                                                                                                                                                          7)Health : It manifests itself in neglecting her health needs such as: lack of nutrition, forcing her for abortion if she is pregnant with female fetus, or forcing her to repeat pregnancy in order to give birth to male child, or not allowing her to see a doctor, or preventing her from setting apart between pregnancies.