One in three, or 34 percent, of married Vietnamese women have either suffered physical or sexual violence from their husbands at some time in their lives, a new report says.
When three main types of domestic violence - physical, sexual and emotional - are considered, 58 percent of Vietnamese women report experiencing at least one type in their lifetime, according to the study released Thursday.
The joint UN-Vietnam report, the first of its kind, also says that nine percent of women currently or formerly married are experiencing either physical or emotional violence.
Sampling 4,838 women aged between 18 and 60, the study shows that women are three times more likely to be abused by a husband than by any other person.
About 5 percent of women who had been pregnant reported being beaten during pregnancy. In almost all of these cases, the women had been abused by the father of the unborn child.
It says children are also victims. Almost one in four women with children under 15 years of age reported that their children have been abused physically by their husbands.
But there are regional variations.
In the southeastern region, 42 percent of women report having experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands at some time.
Greater differences are also evident among ethnic groups, with reported lifetime prevalence rates of domestic violence ranging from 8 percent (H’Mong) to 36 percent (Kinh). Kinh is the dominant ethnicity accounting for nearly 90 percent of the population.
“Although domestic violence is widespread, the problem is very much hidden,” said Henrica A.F.M. Jansen, lead researcher of the study.
“Besides the stigma and shame causing women to remain silent, many women think that violence in relationships is ‘normal’ and that women should tolerate and endure what is happening to them for the sake of family harmony.”
In fact, one in two women said that before the survey interviews, they had never told anyone about instances of violence by their husbands.
“This report highlights the urgency of breaking the silence,” said Jean Marc Olive, WHO Representative in Vietnam. “All of us owe it to the women who suffer from domestic violence, and the women who took part in this survey, to step up, speak out, and end domestic violence.”
The study, undertaken as part of the United Nations - Government of Vietnam Joint Program on Gender Equality, was conducted by the General Statistics Office, with technical assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Vietnam is heavily influenced by Confucianism which preaches submission and family harmony.
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