CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Gender-based violence has been the experience of women worldwide which has affected their relationship in the homes, communities, places of work and largely their productivity in their various places of assignments (amnesty international, 2005). An increasing amount of research highlights the health burdens, intergenerational effects, and demographic consequences of such violence (United Nations, 2006). The World Health Organization defines such violence as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, or psychological harm or deprivation” (Krug et al, 2002).
Gender violence is a universal reality that had existed in all societies and human settlement regardless of class, income, culture or educational attainment. This paper focuses on domestic violence, a form of gender-based violence, which is defined here as any act of violence resulting in physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, girls or men, including threats of such act, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Domestic violence is also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battery, family violence and intimate partner violence (IPV). It is a pattern of abusive behaviors by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family or cohabitation.
Domestic violence, so defined, has many forms, including physical aggression or assault (hitting, kicking, biting, shoving, restraining, slapping, throwing objects), or threats therefore; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation; stalking; passive/covert abuse otherwise known as neglect; and economic deprivation (Seimeinuk et al, 2010). Domestic violence is not limited to obvious physical violence. It can mean endangerment, criminal coercion, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing and harassment (National Network to End Domestic Violence 2011)
The US office and violence Against Women (OVM) defines domestic violence as a “pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner”. The definition adds that domestic violence “can happen to anyone regardless of race, age. Sexual orientation, religion, or gender”, and can take many forms including physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional, economic and psychological abuse (Office of Violence against Women, 2007).
Women are crucial to the growth and development of any nation and the world at large. They constitute half of the world’s population and are homemakers, custodians of social cultural and fundamental values of the society and permanent change is often best achieved through them. Full community development is impossible without their understanding, cooperation and effect management. Considering the importance of women as mothers, sometimes breadwinners, teachers and guardians, they deserve respect, recognition and better treatment but the opposite is usually the case. According to Davies (1999), women are enslaved in a circle of poverty and they suffer from neglect, discrimination and exploitation. They are also subjected to different of violence by their male counterparts.
In Nigeria, domestic violence is widely acknowledge to be of great concern, not just from a human rights perspective but also from an economic and health perspective. Women are more at risk from this gender–based violence. There have been reports of husbands killing or maiming their wives in the media. The statistics presented by This Day (2011) newspaper are daunting. About 50% of women have been battered by their husband. Shockingly, more educated women (65%) are in this terrible situation as compared with their low income counterparts (55%). Most of the women endure believing they have nowhere to go and in any case, believing for good reason that the law will not protect them.
A staggering 97.2% of them are not prepared to report to the Nigeria police. Only one state of the federation (Lagos been one of them) have passed laws against insidious crime, whilst several Bills against it languish in our male dominated National Assembly. Of the states that have passed it, the law is yet to be fully tested.
Only recently in Lagos state, Titilayo Arowolo, a 27 year – old mother of one was gruesomely murdered by her husband. Arowolo was allegedly axed to death by her husband, Kolade, in their Isolo home in Lagos. Before that, the scandalous story of wife battering by one Nigerian Ambassador and a traditional ruler who engaged his wife in a public brawl made the rounds, thus bringing the issue of spousal abuse once again to the front burner.
Domestic violence that occurs in private within the family, including rape, acid attack and sexual abuse affect the physical and psychological wellbeing of women; and as such, they seem to erode the position of women at home and in the society at large. Domestic violence against women therefore deserve to be researched upon so as to expose the existence of this discrimination against women and in the process provide possible solution to curb its prevalence.