Intimate partner violence against women : foundation for prevention and for an educational programme for new couples in an Iranian city

Abstract

Understanding how community members conceive the occurrence and prevention of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) can help set the stage for contextrelevant and sustainable preventive interventions, including educational programmes. The studies forming this thesis are part of such an assessment and concern community members in the city of Kermashah (Iran). They aim to gather the opinions of various stakeholders to better understand the social conceptions about causes and means of prevention of IPVAW.

A survey was conducted among a convenience sample of married women (face-to-face interviewed; n=435) and men (self-administration; n=447) using a questionnaire mainly composed of closed questions. Questions were asked about the risk factors, consequences and means of prevention of IPVAW. Thereafter, other community members were individually interviewed, including key informants (n=23), gatekeepers (instructors of premarital education centres and their suervisors ; n= 8) and husbandsand wives-to-be (n=22). Focus was then placed on preventive issues and a qualitative approach was used.

Married women were in agreement with most of the potential causes and triggers of IPVAW already documented in the scientific literature and raised in public health settings. Married men had split opinions that clustered into four main patterns. Men who expressed opinions very similar to those of women constituted the biggest group (about 33%) and three other groups either disagreed or had mixed opinions. As a potential trigger of IPVAW, behaviour by wives with the potential to humiliate a husband in front of other people was ranked highly among both men and women. This, combined with a tendency for other stakeholders to put the blame on the victim (see below), constitutes a source of concern and requires further intervention.

There was considerable agreement among married men and women that life skills training and raising awareness could help to prevent IPVAW. Even among key informants, community education about relationship issues was often mentioned, although counter-measures at various levels were also put forward (individual, relational, community and societal). A tendency towards victim blaming was observed among some key informants.

Almost all husbands-to-be, wives-to-be and gatekeepers believed that premarital education could help to prevent IPVAW but none of the education centre supervisors did. Suggestions for the course curriculum dealt with skills training rather than raising awareness.

In conclusion, strong agreement on the effectiveness of educational programmes in general and premarital educational programmes in particular is a good sign of the potential acceptance of such programmes in the target community. Educational programmes in the field of IPVAW should focus on mutual responsibilities with more emphasis on the perpetrator developing non-violent problem-solving skills and an overall campaign against victim-blaming attitudes.