WUNRN
CHINA
- HIGH RATES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - STUDIES +
By Mitch Moxley
BEIJING, Oct 5, 2010 (IPS) - Despite successful campaigns
to promote gender equality, China continues to struggle with high rates of
domestic violence, which experts say impacts not only families but society as a
whole.
One-third of Chinese households cope with domestic abuse,
both physical and psychological, according to a national survey by the
All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), the largest women’s non-government
organisation in China.
The study found that the violence mostly takes place in
rural areas, in young families and in households with lower educational levels.
Men commit 90 percent of the violent acts, the study found.
Another study conducted by the China Law Institute in Gansu,
Hunan and Zhejiang provinces found that one-third of the families surveyed had
experienced family violence and that 85 percent of the victims were women. It
found that domestic abuse was so prevalent that both men and women identified
it as a part of normal family life. Just 5 percent of respondents said their
marriage was unhappy.
Domestic violence "has a pernicious influence on
families and society as a whole. It threatens social stability, imperils
marriages and threatens children’s well-being," said Xu Rong, chief of the
projects section at the Beijing Cultural Development Centre for Rural Women.
In rural areas in particular, the long-standing idea that
women should be in subordinate positions to men is a primary contributor to
abuse. In China, as in many other countries, domestic violence is considered a
private matter and this makes it difficult for women in distress to seek help.
Domestic violence is also a main contributor to high rates
of suicide among women in rural areas.
According to a report posted on Da Ai Net, a news portal
that focuses on mental health and family education, about 157,000 Chinese women
kill themselves each year, and the rate of suicide is three to five times
higher in rural areas than urban centres.
According to one survey based on 260 cases of suicide among
rural women, 66 percent had been victims of domestic violence. Xie Lihua,
editor of ‘Rural Women’ magazine and secretary-general of the Development
Centre for Rural Women, attributed the violence to the traditional belief that
boys are more valuable that girls, the subordinate position of women in the
countryside and the lack of assistance available to abused women, according to
Da Ai Net.
But there is evidence that domestic violence is prevalent in
higher-income families as well. A survey by the Guangdong Municipal Women’s Federation
showed that of 548 cases of household abuse, 111 had members with college
diplomas, 72 were public servant households and 88 of the households had
incomes above 2,000 yuan (298 U.S. dollars) per month.
China’s constitution stipulates that "women in the
P.R.C. (People’s Republic of China) enjoy equal rights to men in all spheres of
life." But until recently, there were no laws specifically addressing
domestic violence in China, said Li Yinhe, China’s first female sociologist who
currently works as a researcher and mentor to doctoral students at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Sociology.
In 2001, an amendment to the marriage law included the term
"domestic violence" for the first time in Chinese law. In that same
year, stipulations about domestic violence appeared for the first time in an
amendments to the General Provisions of the Marriage Law.
China has since signed The Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and has its own stand-alone
laws that ban domestic violence against women and children.
An alliance of civil society organisations was recently
created to conduct a project they call ‘Domestic Violence in China: Research,
Intervention and Prevention’, and Chinese courts are starting to tackle the
problem.
In August 2008, a court in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, issued
China’s first court order on the protection of personal safety when it
prohibited a husband from beating or humiliating his wife.
Xu, whose work focuses primarily on suicide prevention in
rural areas, said that despite still high rates of domestic violence, there
have been significant improvements in recent years. Notably, increased rural
incomes have helped alleviate the problem somewhat.
Still, much more needs to be done.
Li said China needs to increase funds for women’s shelters
and promote gender education. Xu added that China should also strengthen its
laws against domestic violence, and promote prevention and protection. "We
need to spread the idea that domestic violence is illegal across the whole
society," Xu said.