Violence against Women in South Asian countries

In South Asian countries, the natures and social status of women are formed by the tradition of various religion such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Hindu, Islam and Christian. The role of women is devaluated by rigid cultures and patriarchal attitudes. The overall family structure is set in a way in which the man is the undeniable ruler of the household. All the activities in the household are considered as private activity. This wide spreads the incidence of violence against women. Wife battering, sexual assault etc. are traditional forms of violence. Additional to that there is also occurrence of dowry crimes such as bride burning, kidnapping for the purposes of prostitution, and honor killings. The women are discriminated and discouraged to report violent acts by the laws and regulations. In order to solve these reports, the local laws need to be changed and strictly implemented.

This paper focuses on Pakistani women, but there are also references made to women in South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan etc. Due to lack of information to the writers and scholars, the appearance of Asian women has always been covered in mystery. Here in order to understand the dynamics of violence against women, it is essential to know a brief about the historical development of their personality. In spite of the awareness against all sorts of violence against women in South Asian countries, the Governments seem to be incapable or unwilling to put a end to it.

Reference:

Niaz, U. (2003). Violence against women in South Asian countries. Archives of women’s mental health, 6(3), 173-184.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00737-003-0171-9?LI=true