Paper
Saturday, November 3, 2007
57
Experience of Partner's Violence among Married Women in a Squatter Settlement of Karachi, Pakistan
Tazeen Saeed Ali, MSc, RN, School of Nursing and Department of Community Health Sciences, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan and Neelofar Sami, MBBS, Department of community health sciences, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
| Learning Objective #1: Discuss the high prevalence and reasons of partner’s violence in one of the developing countries. |
| Learning Objective #2: Integrate the role of the nurse in the present health care system, for the identification and management of partner’s violence. |
This study investigated the wife experience of verbal and physical violence from their husbands, aimed to estimate the prevalence of interpersonal violence and to identify the reasons among women in squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan. The data was collected using a cross-sectional study design, by structured interviewing 400 currently married women. Seventy percent (283) of the study subjects reported verbal violence while 25% (100) women reported for physical violence. Women felt mental pressure due to verbal violence as 89% (253/283). The main reasons for physical violence were: in-laws (26%), wife arguing 24%, stopping husband for smoking 17%, taunting the children by the husbands/ in-laws 14%, financial constraints 13%, house-hold chores 7%, stopping the husbands for any thing by wife 6%, women had abortion 5%, followed by others. This study revealed the high prevalence of verbal and physical interpersonal violence, which needs the attention of community health nurses and policy makers. There is a need to provide awareness among the society through integrating in the present health care system by screening and management of partner’s violence.