HA NOI — One in three ever-married women said that they had suffered physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands at some time in their lives.
The results from the National Study on Domestic Violence Against Women in Viet Nam were released in Ha Noi yesterday.
This research, the biggest and most thorough to tackle the issue so far in Viet Nam, was conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the United Nations (UN), and surveyed 4,838 women aged 18-60 from 63 provinces.
Nine per cent of married women said they were currently experiencing either of those two forms of violence.
When the three main types of partner violence - physical, sexual and emotional - were considered, more than half (58 per cent) of Vietnamese women reported experiencing at least one type of domestic violence in their lifetime.
The study found that women are three times more likely to be abused by their husbands than by any other person.
"It is a stark fact that women in Viet Nam are more at risk of experiencing violence in their homes than anywhere else," said Jean-Marc Olive, representative of the World Health Organisation in Viet Nam at the report launch.
Tran Thi Hang, GSO deputy general director said Viet Nam, for the first time, had detailed information about the prevalence, frequency and types of violence against women and the health repercussions of domestic violence.
Pregnant women are also at risk. According to the report, about 5 per cent of women who had been pregnant reported being beaten during pregnancy. In most of these cases, the women had been abused by the father of the unborn child.
"Physical and/or sexual and emotional partner violence in Viet Nam ranks in the middle compared to other countries that have carried out this type of research," said Henrica Jansen, the study's lead researcher.
"This result is only the beginning. Actions need to be taken in the fight against domestic violence."
"We still do not have a national targeted programme for domestic violence for Viet Nam like we do for HIV/AIDS," said Benjamin Swanton from Paz Y Desarrollo, a Spanish non-government organisation on domestic violence in Viet Nam.
Once there is a national targeted programme then the resources are addressed, all ministries get involved and the issue will then be tackled thoroughly, he added.
Although domestic violence takes a heavy toll on women, children are also victims. Almost one in four women with children under 15 years of age reported that their children had been abused physically by their husbands. —VNS
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