Domestic violence and consanguineous marriages - perspective from Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Domestic violence is globally endemic and adversely impacts the health and economic well-being of women and society. This study used the standardized and validated assessment instrument "Woman Abuse Screening Tool" to study the prevalence of various forms of domestic violence among married women. The relationship between domestic violence and consanguineous marriage was studied using the chi-squared test. Cumulatively, 1010 married women were interviewed. Emotional abuse was the most commonly reported abuse, reported by 721 (71.4%) women as either often or sometimes, followed by sexual abuse and physical abuse, reported by 527 (52.2%) and 511 (50.6%) respectively. Being married to one's cousin did not protect married women from being abused either emotionally or physically by their husbands; thsi was statistically significant. There is a need for better understanding of the magnitude and scale of domestic violence in Pakistan by using standardized assessment tools for meaningful comparisons across different parts of the country over time.