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What Matters? Humanitarian Feedback Bulletin #13 (17 October 2018) [EN/BN]

Countries
Bangladesh
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Sources
BBC Media Action
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Publication date

Intimate partner violence: Women keep silent and cope

Source: Quantitative data collected from 6811 respondents by IOM community mobilisers from February to August 2018; qualitative research by BBC Media Action, in partnership with Norwegian Church Aid, into attitudes towards intimate partner violence in August 2018; and gender analysis carried out by Action Against Hunger, Save the Children and Oxfam in August 2018.

Analysis of community feedback data shows that concerns related to gender-based violence (GBV) or intimate partner violence (IPV) are very rarely raised through existing feedback systems. In camp 10, for example, less than 1% of the feedback shared by women was regarding protection issues.

But other sources suggest that problems related to GBV and IPV are very real. Recent local newspaper articles reported that around 5-10 rape survivors visit camp hospitals for treatment every day. Coverage in the press has noted the difficulties faced by survivors, who do not want to disclose the issue to the on-duty doctors and other medical staff and also mentioned that, in many cases, the perpetrator is a male relative, which makes it even more difficult for survivors to lodge a complaint. So why are these types of issues not being raised through the existing feedback channels and mechanisms within the response?

Qualitative research suggests that IPV is common among the Rohingya community. IPV is not considered as ‘violence’ as such: rather, most Rohingya people believe that a husband has the right to beat his wife “with or without any reason”.

IPV can start from the very beginning of a Rohingya woman’s married life. If her family fails to provide the dowry that was promised at the time of the wedding, she can face continuous, verbal and sometimes physical abuse from her husband and in-laws. But the woman is unlikely to protest as the violence is seen as a consequence of her parents’ failure to keep their promise. Rohingya women can also become victims of IPV if they fail to carry out household duties properly or if they are felt to not be adequately taking care of their in-laws or satisfying their husband.

Besides mental and physical abuse, Rohingya women can also be forced to have sex by their husbands. Some young women who were married at an early age said that their husbands often wanted intercourse multiple times within a short period and described how this was a difficult and painful experience for them. Women said that they had no way to refuse their husbands’ demands and also described how they were forced to have sex during their menstrual cycle, in the later stages of pregnancy and just a few days after childbirth.

Despite experiencing emotional, mental or sexual abuse, Rohingya women are very unlikely to complain about their husband and generally do not take any action (either directly or with help from their parents) except in extreme circumstances, such as if physical violence has caused bleeding or serious injury. Feedback from women suggests several reasons for their silence. They are afraid that their husband will take a second marriage and, given that remarriage for women is impossible in Rohingya society, are worried that they would have no access to money and no way to earn a livelihood in that situation. Additionally, if a woman speaks up or complains about her husband, she is perceived to be a beadob (ill-mannered person) in society. A beadob wife is ostracised by the community and is something that no Rohingya woman wants to be