Domestic Violence: Cultural Impact on Women's Lives in the UK

This essay examines the impact of domestic violence on women in the UK, focusing on the cultural experiences of women from East European, Black African, and South Asian backgrounds. It explores how cultural norms and societal factors contribute to the prevalence and impact of domestic abuse. The essay discusses issues such as gender discrimination, unequal access to education, and the role of substance abuse in perpetuating violence. It also highlights the psychological and physical effects of domestic violence, including PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing cultural factors in combating domestic violence and providing support to affected women. Desklib provides students access to this essay along with a wide range of study tools.

The Effects Of Domestic
Violence On Women In UK
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................3
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................3
Cultural experiences and differences of domestic violence and its impact on women from East
European in UK...........................................................................................................................3
Cultural experiences and differences of domestic violence on black African women and how
has it impacted on their life in UK..............................................................................................6
The culture differences and experiences of Domestic Violence on south Asia women and how
it has impacted their life in UK...................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
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CHAPTER TWO
METHODOLOGY
Cultural experiences and differences of domestic violence and its impact on women from East
European in UK
From 1980's it has been observed that women belonging to East Europe have facing
various gender discrimination, domestic violence and different historic experiences. Gender
relationships are clearly associated with power, due to which non dominant as well as dominant
sexualities have over powered one another which resulted into asymmetrical organization of
society (Ferrari and et.al., 2016). The culture as a whole have been seen to restrict the access of
East European women with non prescriptive sexualities so as to depreciate and marginalise the
way women are living. From the past cultural history it has distinctly been observed that equality
as well as differences among women and men have made the life of East European women more
miserable. Although, men and women are seen to engage in several but different political, socio
cultural and economic activities, this has been considered as one of the major reason for labour
division based on gender. All such practices have subjected in cultural differences which
ultimately forced women to get into such situation where they tend to feel inferior. Even at some
phases the equality factor become quite prominent and at any sphere of life, such factor have
consequence into enhanced burden over some women of respective place.
With respect to their cultural point of view, women are being devalued in such areas
when highly compared with men belonging to East Europe. Education system in East Europe
since many years have been greatly based on chance to get access as well as curricula. When
norms and the polices have been seen it was shown that society and cultural experiences played
very essential role. Several variables like ethnic, social as well as cultural class, economic status,
religious practices, personal class state, nation building have all equally influenced the approach
of girls and women towards education. Elementary education was still approachable to girls but
when the quality of such method have been compared then it was found that the quality of
eduction was much more under represented even at such low grades (Anderberg and et.al.,
2016). Research papers have stated that such condition have are major reason behind minimise
status of women and gender discrimination. Such practices make the men from the initial stage
very strong and they some how started to feel dominant and superior from women and stared to
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treat them differently as per the cultural and religious view point in East European in United
Kingdom. The women in respective location always saw in engaging activities like agricultural
or farming sort of work on some wages or unpaid, apart from this men used to have high paid
jobs which made the division of labour more complicated and imbalanced and thus lead to harsh
behaviour towards female. Even during meals, women used to stand while entire family eats for
serving food and then eat from the remaining share of food, such discrimination made male more
dominating and arrogant towards women living in their house (Woodlock, 2017). All the
activities slowly resulted in domestic violence in East Europe which made women's life pathetic
and intolerable.
Habit of consuming drugs and alcohol in men made the circumstances even more worse.
Various forms of domestic abuse have came into light like, emotional abuse, sexual abuse,
physical abuse, spiritual abuse, psychological abuse, social abuse, verbal abuse and many more.
Drinking alcohol in men have found to cause more domestic violence, when compared to the
condition when they are sober. Such practice may lead into any kind of abuse or a combination
which further not only affects the life of women but also make women's health, social as well as
mental condition very unstable. Various kind of domestic violence have emerged due to males
need to control and take everything in their hand. Substance abuse and their associated addiction
has shown to have a powerful connection with domestic abuse and violence. Being under the
influence of any drug or substance people have a high probability to show abusive behaviour and
if they are stopped from such habit they show highly aggressive actions and lose control
mentally. Nearly 80-85% of domestic violence have caused due to extensive use of drugs,
because the chemicals as well as inhibitors which are released after consuming alcohol or drugs
tends to lose the power of thinking rationally and accurately (Westmarland, 2015). Such practice
result not only in addiction but also affects the surrounding of family negatively which further
result in worse state of children and their mother. The violence may start by some sort of actions
like to tease the victim that they can not achieve anything in their life due to less education or
previous religious or cultural background. Men of such class have habit to dictate ways in which
their women have to get dressed up or how to behave in front of society, if such demands are not
being fulfilled appropriately or according to the wish of men then it start the process of beating
women either alone or in front of whole community or family. These actions slowly start to
become major and actions like stopping their woman from meeting any particular family
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member or friend demotivate female more and they become weak spiritually and mentally. Such
over powering males does not give any chance to women for making any crucial decision
regarding their related family or for children, they act upon such women so dominantly that they
keep their thoughts to themselves and does not even try to make any decisions which are related
to family or friends (World Health Organization, 2016). If any actions or some sort of behaviour
are conducted by women irrespective of males decisions, then they get threatened and intimated
by males and later they have to live life against their will. Such males are often seen to engage
in insulting or making fun of their wives at some parties or events which result in crushing their
soul and break down.
The acute impact of physical violence on East European women living in UK can make
their life more miserable due to their husband stereotypical thinking and past cultural
experiences. Such violence may result into serious health condition and minor injuries in women.
Such injuries may involve bruises, broken bones, cuts or some severe injury in particular organ.
Physical violence is one of the major incident which can be caused after taking drugs or due to
consumption of alcohol. Sexual violence is also common after taking high dose of drugs or
drinking low quality alcohol, such violence may include vaginal bleeding or unwanted
pregnancy which not only affect women physically but also make the stability of mind unstable.
Due to such happening, these mothers become socially and spiritually ill and delivers baby with
very less weight and or some other defects which further result in making the baby weak and
impaired either emotionally, mentally or physically (Khalifeh and et.al., 2015). Sexual violences
actually terrifies women and they tends to have sleeping troubles and nightmare which may lead
into depression and stress. Such psychological effects impacts in making female living in East
European in UK, experiences Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, stress
and suicidal thoughts due to physical or sexual violences. According to many research it has
been seen that women tends to suffer from PTSD more often as compared top the other
psychological disorders because they keep on reminding themselves about the occurrence of
incident which make them stuck to some trauma and then stress episodes starts to burst out. Such
activities and thoughts make the thinking of women more suicidal who then tends to take their or
their children life due to such high violence rate. They not only ends their life but also make their
children's life miserable as their emotional state are very much affected by the environment of
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family. They tends to become weak by looking their mother condition which deeply disturbs
their mental state.
Cultural experiences and differences of domestic violence on black African women and how has
it impacted on their life in UK
All kinds of family or domestic violence is not acceptable and illegal according to the
norms of the country. However, it is complex situation for the women who belongs to culturally
diverse backgrounds. A mix of cultural and social factors along with own cultural context are the
major reasons for occurrence of such family violence experiencing by black African women.
Factors like race, gender, class are all interconnected variables which lead into different
experiences associated with culture in black African women. The social as well as cultural norms
have been seen to have great affect in shaping ones action and behaviour which highly include
the usage of violence so as to prove that they are more strong (Kalokhe and et.al., 2017).
Though, norms and cultural experiences have been seen to safeguard against abuse but they
some how also motivates people to use such harmful act. From the starting period of time, black
people tends to face more difficulties in adjusting within different societies. They often being
treated differently and badly by other people of community due to their race and colour. Such
practice made their cultural experience very harsh and they mostly lived their life fighting for
their rights and making adjustments so that people thriving in world wide can accept them. A
range of internal pressures like to earn money and external pressures like to face exploitation
made the state of black African people especially women unbearable.
The past cultural society of such group never involved women in getting education or to
engage in some activities to make money because there males were already serving slaves job for
white people. The males of such community had to do all house hold jobs as well as other house
related work of white people for earning small amount of money. Although, women and men are
observed to engross in assorted economical, political and socio cultural activities, be that as it
may be one major reason for working class division in context to gender (Pearlman and et.al.,
2016). All such patterns have formulated cultural divergence which in the end strained women to
get into such position where they tend to feel lost and inferior. Due to such discrimination and
exploitation, people of this community made some solid and irrational beliefs that men have
entire power as well as right to control women through physical modes which further result in
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making females vulnerable to violence by sexual abuse, intimate partner violence or some
ethically unacceptable violence. The cultural norms of such society doe not consider such abuse
as wrong or illegal and they make their girls learn that they have to face their husband or family
member's violence in every situation and have to live with them happily. The elder people make
their girls learn that they should not discuss their personal stuffs either related to physical abuse
or any sort of violence with anyone (Katz, 2016). Due to such stereotypical thinking, values and
concepts women alters their behaviour and discloses all experiences of abuse with themselves
and live with such horrible circumstances.
Employment in this cultural background has been considered as important factor in
forming the behaviour of male. Black African males rigorously work for white people as maids,
they sometimes get beaten up by their owners and when such people reach home they try to burn
their stress and feel powerful by beating their wife. They are being often raped and physically
abused which results in black bruises and patches in black women. The economic stress and
financial status are major reason of stress and high occurrences of mental health problem in
males which directly result in domestic abuse as well as violence. Women are facing inter
personal abuse which further consequence in intimate personal violence due to gender
discrimination and racism. For Black African women, racism is a chief source of long lasting
psychological distress. Major amount of stress have been extracted from frequent experience of
racial discrimination, another source of racism is regular hassle which has to be dealt daily by
such women. Limited opportunities and unavailable resources make their condition worse and
they have to deal with such situation on their own (Choudhry and Herring, 2017). Many
researcher have been observed that males who grew in such family who are already in the
process of beating the girls or their mother is often victim of abuse then they are tend to become
more likely their father and follow such culture in their future also. The financial status of such
society have been always poor due to which they could not afford to get good quality of food and
nutrition which are required in development of babies. The boy of such family of does not
supported well in terms of food then they may acquire some mental illness which eventually
result in increasing the risk of being abusive in relationships. All such habits and situation some
how make men frustrated and they beat women in order to release their unworthiness and
tension.
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The impact of these elements are adverse on physiological, behavioural as well as
psychology on black African women in UK. Harsh behaviour, physical or sexual abuse lead in
long term physical effects that have the potential to cause large number of health associated
problem. Acute injuries which starts due to physical abuse if maintained regularly then it can
result in making chronic health problems like arthritis, asthma, severe pain, heart issues, lowers
immune system, severe headache which can form migraine in future, nightmares, digestive
problems and many more (Katz, 2015). To cope up with such drastic and deadly situation,
women starts to engage in habit of drinking alcohol and misusing drugs which negatively
regulates their body and they start having nightmares, excessive sweating and shivering. Sexual
violence or intimate partner violence not only have adverse effect on body but also have a
destructive effect on mind and soul leading into disturbed eating habits and number of mental
issues. Black African women often gets so negative in their life due to such prominent actions
that they lose their motivation and they lead such life where they feel they are not worthy enough
to complete any task or to make healthy conversation with some person in society. They develop
such personality who can not confront people directly, lose faith in themselves and often gets
scared when any person talks to them loudly. They pursue their life lonely and spend each aspect
of their life to make their children and partner happy. All these behavioural pattern make such
women confused, and they constant suffer from dizziness, vomiting, loss of consciousness,
slurred speech, difficulties in concentrating and memory loss. All such factors are treated to
traumatic brain injury which may arise when women are being hit against the wall. Over a long
time period, such injury further causes hypertension and anxiety which significantly lowers the
processing power of such individuals and their thoughts become more negative and suicidal.
They slowly could not interact with people without shivering which further becomes a reason to
get ashamed in front of society and friends. Mental health issues like PTSD, anxiety and
depression which more interferes in their daily life routine. Domestic violence on black African
women is an under-reported problem since many years. It consist of all sorts of abuse including
psychological, emotional, physical and sexual (Oram, Khalifeh and Howard, 2017). Domestic
violence has a major impact on all communities irrespective of their class, religion or sexual
orientation. It is majorly a Taboo subject in overall black community. A common sentiment is
that domestic violence is between a victim and the abuser. However, there are several of black
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African women in the country who do not speak for their abuser and don't want them to get in
any kind of trouble and then face brutality and job less condition.
The culture differences and experiences of Domestic Violence on south Asia women and how it
has impacted their life in UK.
In south Asia, discriminatory attitudes and rigid cultures towards women have give rise to
exploitation of women ranges from individuals to community levels. Girls and women in South
Asia are more prone to biased, inequality practices as well as violent behaviours at overall stages
in their life. Frequent incidence of culture related violence like acid attacks, honour killings and
stove burnings in the south Asian regions along with trafficking of women Sri-Lanka, Nepal and
India to other major regions of the world. Women in such areas are forced into prostitution and
other types of sexual abuse and are threatened in their home if they are not willing to do that
(Stanko, 2017). These all the the constituent examples of domestic violence against women in
the regions of south Asia. A deeply rooted cultural norms has lead to acceptance of violence
against women as a normal activity for a women. Removal of such cultural myths tends to be a
formidable task as it is not a big issue according to individuals sustaining in countries of South
Asia. It is a consideration since many years that men is a undisturbed ruling unit in a family.
However, ineffective norms and legislations of the country is also a main reason to motivate and
encourage abusers to commit such kinds of illegal activities and to harm women without any
fear. There are many fundamental challenges that include in order to eliminate the risk of such
domestic violence against women such as changes in attitudes of society and individuals, at both
family and community level. It also requires implementation of polices to remove gender
discrimination and sustaining of political norms to attain a significant outcome. Different
cultures and social norms in the region support different kinds of domestic violence that occur
against women (Kelly and Westmorland, 2016). Women of South Asia who are sustaining in UK
are also effected by such domestic violence as they tends to develop some mental issues due to
regularly experiencing such sort of illegal crimes that happen in their own families by their
partners or other family members.
Traditional beliefs in South Asia such as men are born to control and discipline women
through physical abuse makes women even more vulnerable towards violence through their
intimate partners and placing girls at a risk of sexual abuse to earn money tends to rise in
domestic violence. Cultural acceptance of violence equally by women of the respective regions
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including sexual violence, marital rape as a private issue overs outside intervention for such
illegal activities and thus stops effected victims to speak for themselves and gain any kind of
support from their own families and care homes. In many societies of South Asia, women who
has experience domestic violence feels stigmatised that inhibits them to report against abuser. It
has been found that in regions of South Africa social and cultural norms around intake of alcohol
and its expected results could also encourage abusers to commit domestic violence acts which is
quite justifiable for other individuals of the region. Societies in the countries of South Africa that
favours acute alcohol intoxication has reported high rates of domestic violence against women.
In such societies it is a belief that consuming alcohol is a justification to commit violent acts
against females and give motivation to abusers to commit such acts (McCarrick, Davis-McCabe
and Hirst-Winthrop, 2016). Interventions are need to be implement that deals with social and
cultural norms that lies under risky drink behaviour and social expectation regarding alcohol can
prevent such violent domestic acts. Women of South Asia who are sustaining in United Kingdom
are also not that much safer as even in UK such violent acts are very common at home
irrespective of equality legislation and gender discrimination laws.
As culture is a foundation to human experiences. Different individuals in different
countries poses different cultural beliefs and norms of the society. Domestic violence is a
common act in some of the societies where South Asian women experience number of illegal
acts that happen with them at their homes. Some of the documented experiences of women
presented that outcome of discrimination and inequality in the are of sex is common in all
societies. In many different countries women are proved to be equal by implementing various
rights and rules for the safety and equal treatment of women, regardless of such safety laws they
are still being physically abused in their houses and experience different forms of domestic
violence. An abused women tends to live in fear and is not sure when the next attack will come
for her. Women who has been abused may be isolated from family and friends and become
dependent on the abuser. Domestic violence against women of South Asia is majorly because of
cultural backgrounds. South Asian women are not only vulnerable to domestic violence but also
under-reporting of such violent acts. The main issue is not only to quantify the issue but also to
understand the roots of the issue (Walby and et.al., 2017). South Asian immigrants who have
emigrated from different countries of South Asian regions into United Kingdom have faced
difficulties in sustaining in the country properly due to their experiences of facing domestic
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violence at their home. Irrespective of change of the country they still have to face such kinds of
abuses by their partners and other family members as they are not willing to raise their voices
against domestic abuse they are facing. Intimate partner violence related homicide impact
immigrant women of South Asia in United Kingdom in a negative manner. Ratio of domestic
violence in the countries has been increasing day by day as women tends to keep quite and not
find it appropriate to report against their own intimate partners. However, South Asians in the
United Kingdom are also consider as minority as they are majorly presented as a successful,
hard-working and family oriented population. The minority image of population cloud be
problematic for women as it results in rise of certain internal issues such as domestic violence
(Miller and Segal, 2019). It also motivates members to adjust their expected roles of gender roles
and to maintain a positive public image. It mainly includes internal motivation of domestic
violence victims to keep their violence hidden which is a cultural tradition in South Asia.
CHAPTER 3
Theme 1: The Role of Cultural background on domestic violence
It has been evaluated that, the cultural background play a very decisive role in promoting
or lowering domestic violence. The women belonging to upper, middle class or associated with
white people tends to have less violence episode than those who are black, East European or
South Asian. The upper class women have considerably taken effective measures in meeting the
societal factors and gaps which actually helps in shaping the different experiences of culture. The
colour of women as per the history and present have seen to have a different experience
associated with abuse when compared to other group of females. The cultural values,
experiences, background, racial , socio economic status, dominance all play roles in shaping the
level of domestic violence over women (Thiara and Humphreys, 2017). Women from refugee
family or immigrant have found to be at much higher risk due to their tolerating and migration
history for various cultural norms and ideas. As they are immigrant they tends to live in fear
already due to unacceptable behaviour of society and at this time the beating and violence make
their life pathetic.
It has been analysed that, researchers have found that in many cultures, abuse against
women are frequently justified when such situation comes that women are not following or doing
actions as per the norms like, earning short clothes, talking to some another man, or arguing with
their husbands. Deviation between cultural norms of different countries when compared with
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other not so developed country have found to be varying on the subject of domestic abuse. Due
to the fear of deportation many Black African women do not report against such violence. Major
disparity have been created by gender discrimination, religious beliefs and ranging migration as
well as cultural history which alter they way people process the situation and then act as per their
history and norms. The prime relationship among culture and domestic violence have greatly
affected the life of many different cultural group women to core and made them realise that they
have to follow all cultural norms without being complaining (Holt, 2016). The advocacy related
to domestic violence are mostly encouraged for integrating culturally distinct strategies so that
the prevailing status of women may get improved and sustained. Women as well as girls of East
Europe or Asian are more inclined to partiality and biased, inequality practices and the potential
violent activities at general phase of their life is all part of such dynamic cultural practices.
Gender discrimination, stereotypical norms, poor upbringing all reflects the how people will
behave in future with their family members or partners.
Theme 2: The Domestic violence experience of women belonging to different culture
It has been monitored that not only the respective women are getting traumatized and
tortured by family members or husband, more culturally distinct women experiencing domestic
violence at different level. In Somali culture, the experience of domestic abuse are different
which is usually limited to abuse related to physical harm, where all family members apart from
husband beats women for controlling every move of such individuals. In American culture, apart
from physical violence other kinds of abuse are also been observed like verbal, spiritual, sexual
which are only restricted to intimate partners. Though, the Somali community have considered
physical violence as a cruel act but some how few people think that regulating patriarchal
structure is quite important for family. The Islamic teaching in such community have seen to
make men more aggressive which make the probability of getting into conflicts more often. The
views and presumed right of some people ''to teach lesson to wife'' is very frequently spread in
various communities that justifies the cause of domestic violence.
As per the report, it has analysed that apart from Black African and East Europeans
women, the Vietnamese community commonly have a thought process which make such abusive
behaviour as a personal matter which can not be disclosed in society and must be kept among
certain family members. Thus, women of such community ignore their issues due to shame and
have a thought process that assistance from outside is an unacceptable mode to resolve issues
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(Walby and Towers, 2017). The economical stress is also one of the major cause of such abuse,
due to economic hardship such people become more arrogant which consequence in abusive
actions. Latino community is another backward community among others where the women are
being suffering majorly due to violence. The major causes of such behaviour in this community
are immigration status, drugs or economical status, which greatly force and risk life of women to
fall in such actions. Language and huge cultural difference also make them so socially distinct
that even if they want to seek assistance from outer intervention or some local governing body
they keep themselves restricted and do not involve in such potential process. These communities
render chances to men to get married more than one time and are allowed to have various wives.
In such situation, previous women are assumed to understand such practices and must tolerate
rude action and behaviour of their men and current wife which adversely affects their existing
life and make them completely demotivated. Women in such communities are only expected to
work in homes, thoughts to work or doing something for themselves make men feel inferior and
they use domestic violence as a only weapon.
Theme 3: The Effects of domestic violence on East European women
It has been critically discussed that, East European women due to stereotypical thinking,
less eduction, extensive use of alcohol and substance abuse have been observed to cause
domestic abuse majorly in such women group. The victims of such act face many pre and post
challenges which have the potential to crucially affects the well being of women. The existing
abuse make them mentally, emotionally, psychologically, physically and socially ill. The most
common impacts of physical abuse are broken wrist, long term fatigue, bruises on neck or
around the eyes, muscle tension, lack of breath, involuntary shaking, dysfunction related to
sexual behaviour, menstrual cycle disturbance and alteration in sleeping patterns are some initial
or acute effects of some physical violence which are extensively showed after physical abuse.
When the physical abuse turns into sexual and social abuse then such injuries are more deep and
related to mental and at spiritual level (Ellsberg and et.al., 2015). The general impacts of high
domestic abuse have a drastic effect on women belonging to such group, which make them
depressed and anxious over small things. Such psychological effects deliberately causes number
of problems in making female living in East European in UK, experiences anxiety, Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidal thoughts and stress due to sexual
aggression and social abuse. According to some view points, it has been showed that PTSD more
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often suffered by women when compared to the other mental syndromes because they constantly
keep themselves reminded about the violent episodes which make their sleeping pattern
disturbed and further alleviates the stress level beyond an optimal level. Rough behaviour, sexual
or physical abuse lead in chronic term physical effects which can cause ample number of health
related problem (García-Moreno and et.al., 2015). All these behavioural forms make such part of
women baffled, and they invariably experience from vomiting, loss of consciousness, dizziness,
trouble in concentrating and memory loss and slurred speech. Moreover, the women become
socially cut from their friends and families which make them emotionally weal, they lose their
confidence level to a great extent and thinks that they are not worthy enough to go in the outer
world and can earn. The confidence of talking with people with eye contact and making logical
conclusion over a topic gets some how lost in such process and they themselves loose their
capacity to compete. The emotional as well as mental breakdown forces them so much that they
go at such extent which may involves in attempting suicide.
Theme 4: The Effects of domestic violence on Black African women
It has been monitored that women belonging to Black Africa are also getting tortured
from past many centuries. The black people who were already suffering from slavery system as
per their historic experience were observed to get more irritated and frustrated on their family
members over small topics. The slavery system, stereotypical thinking, economical status as well
as their financial condition regulates the behaviour of black men and their attitude towards their
family members as well as their wives. The men of such group gets angry over small issues
because they get beaten up over and over again by their owners which make them mentally and
emotionally affected. The women of such background have always seen such environment where
their fathers used to beat their mothers, due to such observation and thinking they feel that they
are some sort of objects which are being associated and living in this world to work all house
hold task and tolerate any kind of behaviour of men (García-Moreno and et.al., 2015). For
coping up with such forceful situation, women initiates to engross in tradition of in taking
alcohol and over dosing the drugs which pessimistically regulates their body by having high
sweating and they start experiencing nightmares as well as shivering. Intimate partner violence
or harsh sexual activities not only have harmful phenomenon on body but have a devastating
outcome on brain and spirit leading into distressed eating habits and occurrence of mental
problems.
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From the report it can be evaluated that, Black African women often gets so pessimistic
in their life due to such striking actions that they tend to free their motivation and they pursue
such life where they do not feel comfortable in crowded places and keep distance with all people
from outside so that no such practices of such women make men angry and they tart beating
women unnecessarily. The worthiness in their eyes gets faded and they gets depressed from their
life. Frequently it has been seen that they commit suicide along with their children due to high
intolerable condition of house (Alesina, Brioschi and Ferrara, 2016). They not only suffer from
externally but their psyche and soul gets crushed due to such activities which adversely affects
their quality of life.
Theme 5: The Effects of domestic violence on South Asia women
It has been evaluated that, domestic violence can be refer to as a violence and an
aggressive behaviour towards women within the home which typically involve violent abuse of a
partner of a spouse. Violence against women of South Asia cause a long term mental and
physical health problems. Psychological consequence of the abuse could be more serious than
physical effects. Women of South Africa are vulnerable to domestic violence which leads to poor
health conditions and increase chances in a women to develop a range of health related issues.
Some of the immediate heath effects faced by women of South Asia are physical injuries like
scrapes, cuts, bruises, fractures and many more. Some of the women facing domestic abuse also
experience hearing loss, vision loss, miscarriage or premature delivery of a child. A women
experiencing domestic violence in the regions of South Asia need a healthcare support in three
ways such as for various traumatic injuries that occurs during abuse, for different chronic
symptoms that are subsequent on living with a domestic abuse and for various psychological
problems that gives rise after the abuse. South Asian women are often presented with broken
bones, retinal detachments and severe pain. They often face weight gain or loss, sleeping
problems and headaches. Some of the common symptoms of chronic ill health consist of pelvic
pain, chronic pain, infectious illness, raised blood pressure and neurological symptoms (Jaffe,
2018).
However, it can be more discussed that the most consistent long lasting issues faced by
South Asian women are STIs, dyspepsia, vaginal bleeding and recurrent STIs. Such chronic
health symptoms and acute injury would eventually results in poor mental health issues. There is
a strong mark towards Asian women who are experiencing sexually transmitted diseases.
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Domestic violence not just cause physical harm to women but also cause psychological harm.
Number of women in the South Asia are spontaneously refer to the impacts of domestic violent
on their emotional and mental well being. They are found with fear and a sense of predictability
regarding when the next attack is going to be happen with them (Pahl, 2016). It eventually results
in depression and anxiety and then results in occurrence of mental issues. After facing domestic
violence women often remains in stress for a long duration which effects their self esteem,
security and self worth. However, in the regions of South Asia, domestic violence is a common
issue which is often overlooked by the individuals of the country underlies in the region of south
Asia. Women who are experiencing such h kinds of abuse often fear to tell their experiences in
front of others and try to hide abuser as he is her own partner. Domestic violence has a serious
impact on life of a women as she gets isolated from the society and not able to interact with other
individuals of the community.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, domestic violence can be defined as the
behaviour which are usually shown to take a complete control over another partner or any other
family member. Such learned or observed behaviour may not be also caused by anger or alcohol
but it may also caused by unemployment, urge to take all situation under one's control, to show
power and some more common excuses. It has been majorly observed that people often
misunderstood the concept of domestic abuse with only physical violence, but in this report all
kinds of domestic violence have been demonstrated which are being used as a weapon against
women by men to make them weak. Various categories of such learned and harsh behaviour
have their own adverse effects on the mental and spiritual states of women in all over the world.
Though, physical abuse is at higher risk of causing much damage to the body of women which
may eventually result in other internal health issues (Sherman and Harris, 2015). Another form
of abuse like verbal, social, sexual, spiritual, psychological are common other than physical
abuse. Controlling behaviour is also considered as a part of such abuse which assist in
maintaining the dominant part of people in front of their family so that no none can perform any
activity without their consent and if they do it has life changing consequences. The practices of
controlling behaviour may comprise of activities like checking mails and phone calls, implying
their thoughts on how and what to wear, calling from office to constantly keep an eye on victim,
invading privacy of victim, forcing such women to get involve in such activities which make
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them embarrassed. The over dominating partners as per the repost are seen forces victim to
always stand with them no matter how wrong they are and make them feel weak which result in
loss of self worth and confidence. These people are often get into terrible situation, to get their
children involved in such task too. They use their kids as a tool to threatened victim more, they
physically abuse the child or behave more harshly so as to make their wife scared as well as to
suppress them.
According to so far report it can be concluded that, Researcher have suggested that sexual
abuse comprises of both physical and verbal actions which uses sex as a major weapon to force
another person. Victims are frequently exploited by intoxicating them with extensive drugs or
either disabling them so as to abuse them sexually, these practices forces women to live their life
in fear for the rest of their life course (Michau and et.al., 2015). Making fun of victims body or
embarrassing them by using offensive statements are also included in wrong sexual behaviour
which is enough to make women conscious and afraid. All such potential actions and harsh
behaviour not only making women physically weak but also destroying their self confidence and
respect for themselves. The women belonging to East Europe, Africa as well as South Asia have
been tolerating such miserable behaviour from past many decades. The cultural experiences even
though of such women are different but they all are receiving one or the same kind of situation
regarding domestic abuse. The gender stereotypical thinking of some people limits the capacity
of females towards men in areas of personal development, education, career and their life
choices. Negative stereotypes are always harmful which weaken the actual strength of women
and render chance to men for beating and harming their wives. People from the past have been
observed to have such negative feelings towards women and they have always considered them
as an object, with no respect and honour. Such practices alters thinking power of men drastically
and they too from the beginning treat their girls and women disrespectfully. Less education,
unemployment, urge to dominate, tension and rural thinking of people are major cause of
domestic violences which are being forwarding from ages to generation and making life of
females critical. The effects of such torture and dishonour on women have caused a lot of issues
in South Asian, Black African and East European women's health. The physical abuse may result
in breakage of bones, major injuries, bruises or some deep cuts. If beating is continued for a long
period of time then it may result in damage of some vital organs like heart, kidney or liver
(Vijayakumar, 2015). Such women live their life in trauma and gets so scared in front of outside
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people that they become socially ill. Mental tension and pressure sue to such episodes make the
lady mentally unstable by causing depression, anxiety, PTSD or memory loss.
From the report more conclusion can be drawn that, Government are continuously
practising for improving the condition of women in various state have formed various policies
and strategies with an objective of lowering violence rate of girls and women. The government
of UK have founded Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), a five year strategy at 2016
which are dedicated in rendering reinforcement to local people who are being facing domestic
violence and abuse. Even though at past period the equality component became rather more
striking and a certain sphere of life, such elements have outcomes in enhancing load over some
women of various places (Guedes and et.al., 2015). Through such strategy, the difference among
men and women some how minimised and the act of abuse lowered evidently. Another act which
came in 2017 is Domestic Violences and Abuse Act, which announced to reduce the occurrence
of domestic abuse by entitling more and more sections of court by laws on abusers. Court along
with the concern of government have made large emphasis on treating people who are suffering
form alcohol addiction. Such people once caught are forced to attend various programmes for
coping up with their addiction issues and making them aware about the impacts and effects their
wife experiences mentally, physically or socially after getting beaten up or abused. Moreover, as
per the act, at any condition the laws or policies if are being breached or not followed by the
abuser then a strict and legal action would be taken against them involving criminal case and
police treatment. When considering some regulations and acts economic abuse have also
regarded as a part of domestic violence, comprising all those aspect which involves loss of job,
unemployment, financial issues, loans, money related burdens (Barrett and McIntosh, 2015).
Government always emphasise on such issues and constantly aware people on reaching to local
non governmental bodies or any local police station for stating their condition at home and what
all problems they are facing associated with domestic abuse. No women should keep this thing
secret and should not withstand violence of anyone at any cost.
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