Getting insight in:

Perceptions of men on women’s life experience with domestic violence and related health consequences;

Men’s role in stopping VAW

FGDs carried out in six districts of “Pakistan Gender Based Violence and Reproductive Network”

Jacobabad, Kashmore (Sindh)

Nasirabad, Jaffarabad (Balochistan)

Muzzafargarh, DG Khan (Punjab)

1 FGD per district (6 in total)

Selection of male facilitator & note-taker from each district

Training on FDG guidlines

Questionnaire developed & translated

78 Male participants (18-35 age)

FGD (1.5-2 hours)

(See criteria/roles of facilitator and note taker in report)

Concept of ‘Man’: Roles & responsabilities Traditions & norms Advantages/disadvantages of being a man

Reseans for violence against women

Health consequences for women

Solutions

Concept of being a ‘Man’ Roles& Responsibilities

Powerful

Strong/tough

Being important

Decision maker

Being better than a woman

Men work, women eat

Outside domain

Having properties

Protector of the family

Provider of income, food, shelter

Providing safety to the family

With stages of life, roles & responsabilities change

Advantages DisadvantagesLiberty

Not tortured, victimized

Freely moving around

Being independent

Having privileges

Burden of earning money for the family

Burden of responsibilities

Doing all labour

Facing pressure from family/ community

Blamed for violence

‘Being a man means being important, better than a woman, educated, not being tortured or victimized’.

‘ Wife is good to cook food at home, this is her total role’.

‘Women are supposed to live inside the four walls and could only get religious education. Men live in the outside world’.

‘Men consider themselves as superior, that’s why they rule inside and outside the house and see women as inferior’.

Cultural/social • Family Honour: otherwise community will label you as weak; strong social pressure

• Men’s right• Society not questioning, no legal consequences,

therefore DV seen as a personal matter• Customs: Early marriage, forced marriage• Possessed by a ‘Spirit’• Women raising voice• Women not satisfying their husband sexually• Women are violent as well• Illiteracy of women

Economic Poverty, lack of financial resources, being jobless Corruption leads to economic misery which affects men

Media Portraying male dominant culture

‘If I beat up my wife, she would be oke for 3 or 4 hours’.

‘Wife only enters heaven, when she is beaten up by her husband’.

‘If a wife says no to her husband while he wants ‘humbistari’,and he sleeps without, the wife is cursed by God for her act.

‘When one is jobless and always feel sarcasm from family, he acts in a violent way as men always want to feel important’.

Access to & availability of health services

• Limited social mobility (veil)• No health facilities (only ‘DAI’)• Absence of female doctors

Health problems • Risk for foetus when violence during pregnancy

• Young girls have risks when early married• Lack of pre-post natal care, home deliveries,

maternal death• Nutrition problems • Son preference: boys get checked up, girls not

Psychosocial problems • Low self-esteem, lack of confidence,• Depression, tensions, suicidal tendencies

Social • Divorce, separation, broken families • Affected children• Loosing respect of the family/community• Loosing social networks

Health • Depressed, tensed• Feeling guilty

Economic • Loosing job• Financial pressures

“There was a boy in our area who killed his mother for being ‘kari’, he went to jail and now he bite himself for having committed a big sin”.

‘If a man beats a woman, we say he is a coward’.

Traditional measures • Reinforcement of traditional roles men&women• Women to obey, not to raise their voice• Jirga’s to be used for solving DV (However: no

representation of women is problem)

Education For womenWomen’s Rights

Community –sensitization/awareness

Women and menCommunity religious leaders, youth etc.

Plus: Special sessions with boys/men on gender&DV

Media Campaigns (women’s health, DV, human rights etc.)

Services/Institutions

Better (accessible) health services, Police, Court, Education (stressing role of State)

Wish you all good spirit, inspiration and motivation for joint action aiming at social justice for all!

THANK YOU!!