Domestic Violence Against Women: Sample of a Different Ethnic Group

Abstract

Objective: This study was planned in an attempt to determine the types of domestic violence experienced by married women from different ethnic groups and their views about violence.
Method: The study was planned in a descriptive way (controlled cross-sectional). The study sample consisted of 360 women from 3 different ethnic groups, who were living in Hatay, were married, could be reached and accepted to participate in the study in 2007. Being prepared by researchers according to literature, the interview form was used as the data collection tool. We used the percentage, mean and chi-square test during the analyses. The data were evaluated in the confidence interval of 95%.
Findings: It was determined that 50.0% of women who participated in the study were in the age range of 30-49, they had similar educational and working status, women of Nusayri lived in nuclear families on a more significant level compared to other groups (p<0,001), 60.0% of the Turkish-Sunni women married at a young age and they had a statistically significant difference from other groups (p=0.026). Majority of women stated that they had been exposed to physical violence (65.1%), emotional/verbal violence (84.4%), economic violence (37.0%) and sexual violence (35.2%) for at least once throughout their life. While majority of women who participated in the study specified the reason for violence as “Women’s opposition” (41.1%), 61.9% of them stated that women had deserved a whacking in some cases.
Conclusion: Violence against women is a universal problem that is commonly encountered in all cultures and societies. Both the domestic violence against women and the types of violence are common in all three groups that were included in the study.