Women's acceptance of intimate partner violence within marriage in rural Bangladesh

Violence against women perpetrated by husbands and male partners occurs worldwide, and an increasing number of surveys indicate that it is widely condoned. This article presents findings from a 2002 survey conducted in six rural villages in Bangladesh suggesting that an extremely high proportion of women believe that husband's use of violence against their wives is acceptable. To investigate the reliability and the psychosocial underpinnings of these survey findings, we also examine data from 110 in-depth interviews and 14 small group discussions. The results suggest that although most abused women in the study had resigned themselves to accept a certain level of violence, they did not condone it, and many abused women said that perpetrators of violence should be punished, and in some cases the punishments they suggested were harsh. We conclude by raising questions regarding the meaning of responses to commonly used questions intended to measure women's attitudes toward intimate partner violence and by discussing policy implications.