Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Experiences from a Woman-Focused Development Programme in Matlab, Bangladesh (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Gender-based violence against women is increasingly being recognized as a matter of global concern (1-4). In 48 population-based surveys worldwide, 10-70% of women reported being hit or otherwise physically harmed by an intimate male partner at some point in their lives (5). Today, the phenomenon is perceived as a threat to women's health and well-being and a serious human rights issue (6,7). Psychiatric morbidity, such as depression, stress-related symptoms, chemical dependency and substance abuse, and suicide are consequences observed in the context of violence in women's lives over time (3). Domestic violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, such as a husband, has become a universal phenomenon and cuts across socioeconomic, religious and ethnic borders (8-12). An 'ecological framework' integrating various individual, contextual and sociocultural factors is offered by researchers to explain the causes underlying domestic violence (13). In developing countries, like Bangladesh, the traditional patriarchal system where women remain subordinate to men in all realms of life (14) combines with other cultural, legal and political factors in aggravating the existing situation.