DOHA: Husbands are the biggest perpetrators of violence against women in the country, figures released by a local women and children’s rights watchdog suggest.
And not only home, but workplace also figures on the list of venues where women are subjected to violence, reflect the statistics.
Violence against women rose a staggering 54 percent in 2011, and 86 percent of complaints received by the Qatar Foundation for the Protection of Women and Children’s Rights talked of physical assault.
At least six percent related to sexual violence while three percent of the complaints talked of being subjected to mental torture.
As for the source of violence, a majority 59 percent of the complainants said they were targets of husbands’ fury, while 11 percent pertained to violence at workplace.
The statistics were released at an event held by the Foundation as part of a drive to raise public awareness about women’s rights and help combat violence against them.
It was pointed out at the event that based on a 2010 study at least 46 percent of marriages in Qatar break up in the first year. This is the highest rate of marital breakup in the entire Middle East.
An expert pointed out that traditional ways of match-making were to mainly blame for marital woes and discords in the entire Arab world.
The way women are married off by their fathers and family elders in the Arab world was in itself a form of violence against women, said the expert.
The Peninsula
