Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Muslim communities

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Violence is prevalent throughout the world, and millions of people die every year because of this. There are many forms of violence, such as violence in war, domestic violence, violence against women (VAW), children and intimate partner violence (Krug et al., 2002:3). This paper will investigate aspects of domestic violence. Many scholars use domestic violence and violence against women interchangeably, but VAW is one form of domestic violence. The United Nations (UN) defines VAW as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life" (WHO, 2013) (Cheung et al., 1999: 2). Women are being harmed physically, emotionally, economically and psychologically on a daily basis, and reports filed regarding VAW each year are increasing rapidly. However, these reports do not represent the complete scenario, as most of the cases go unregistered or disregarded every day (Cheung et al., 1999: 2) because VAW is usually excused, allowed and overlooked (Amnesty International, 2009) (Merry, 2009: 5). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one pervasive form of violence against women, which is usually committed by the husband or intimate male partners (Krug et al., 2002:89). This paper aims to explore patriarchal norms, social constructions and structural inequalities, which support IPV through the lens of masculinities, honor, and gender ideologies, as well as the concept of women as property in the context of Muslim communities.
IPV is defined as any kind of behavior in an intimate relationship that can have physical, emotional, sexual or psycholog...

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