DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AMONG PAKISTANI WOMEN: AN INSIGHT INTO LITERATURE

The objectives of this search were to estimate the burden of domestic violence, its contributing factors and strategies based on literature review for the prevention and control of domestic violence. Published literature about domestic violence in Pakistan during the years 1998 to 2008 was analyzed and scrutinized. This article is based on the searched result of 200 articles published in the English language from which finally 13 articles were selected. Search terms included “Violence”, “Domestic violence”, “Domestic violence in Pakistan” and “Strategies and Recommendations for Prevention of Domestic violence”. According to these studies, the intimate partnersʹ violence is reported as in the range of 30% to 79%. In Pakistan, there are some notable factors which make women prone to domestic violence like womenʹs low education, low empowerment, existing misconceptions about Islamic thoughts and traditional norms, misuse of women in the name of honor justifying honor killing, poverty and existence of unjust traditional dowry system in the society. The most common points made by researchers for prevention and control are 1) the need to recognize the domestic violence against women as an important issue 2) enhancement of educational and health facilities for the prevention and control of violence with combined awareness programs by governmental or nongovernmental organizations and 3) enactment and promulgation of comprehensive laws to combat this problem. Our work reveals that a significantly large proportion of women suffer with domestic violence and the factors identified are preventable and modifiable to a greater extent. Further research is also needed in this regard.