Ebtisam Elghblawi
Alber Riad
Mostafa Rabee

Correspondence:
Ebtisam Elghblawi, MBBCh, MSc, ADD
AOA Hospital.
Tripoli-Libya
Email: Ebtisamya@yahoo.com

In the whole world, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are exposed to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and traditions, and which hinders their right to get involved entirely in society (el-Bayoumi G, Borum ML, Haywood Y., 1998, UNCEF, 2000, 2005, The World's Women 2005, Diop-Sidibé N, Campbell JC, Becker S., 2006).

Recent surveys have found that the prevalence of domestic violence (defined as physical beating or battering of a woman by a male intimate partner) ranges from 22 per cent to 60 per cent in developing countries (Kavita Sethuraman, 2008).
Violence against women is one of the critical social means by which women are imposed into inferior positions compared with men (The World's Women 2005). In Arab and Islamic countries, the scope of domestic violence is not yet considered a major concern despite its increasing frequency and serious consequences (S. Douki, F. Nacef, A. Belhadj, A. Bouasker, and R. Ghachem, 2003). The precursors of domestic violence are found to be mostly marital conflict, cultural heritage, male control over household wealth and decision-making, poverty, and unemployment (Bent-Goodley TB., 2005, Oths K. S., Robertson T., 2007, Kavita Sethuraman, 2008).

It is not only that, but some selective quotes from the Koran are misused, and misinterpreted to prove that men who beat their wives are following God's orders. However, a fair reading of the Koran shows that wife abuse is a result of culture rather than religion (S. Douki, F. Nacef, A. Belhadj, A. Bouasker, and R. Ghachem, 2003, Katerndahl. D. A., Obregon. M.).

A review of nearly 50 population-based surveys from around the world found that between 10% and 50% of women reported being hit or physically abused by an intimate male partner at some point in their lives (Gracia E, Herrero J, 2006), and another study conducted by the WHO in 10-countries on women's health and domestic violence, had found that between 15% and 71% of women reported physical or sexual violence by a husband or partner (Al-Habshi S. , 2006)
In Egypt, the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey of 2005 (2005 EDHS), conducted among a national random sample of women (El-Zanaty & Associates, 2005), indicated that almost half of the Egyptian women ever married had experienced some sort of physical abuse by their spouses, which impacted her physically, and psychologically. This is all attributed to the concept of male supremacy which is accepted to be the norm (Ibrahim A., 2004).

Although a lot of research studied prevalence of domestic violence against women, little related it to women's empowerment and women's attitude towards violence. The millennium development goals have pointed to the importance of women's empowerment in goal number three (MDG 3), (Beijing Platform for Action, 2005, Afifi M., 2007).

This research will study the relation between empowering women and domestic violence, to build up a new strategy to tackle this problem in the Egyptian society.

Our hypothesis is that if women can be empowered, then the violence agains tthem would lessen.

The aim of this research is to determine the main determinants of domestic violence occurrence against women in order to make recommendations to reduce its incidence by empowering women.

The objectives of the research are to measure of prevalence of domestic violence (according to the type of domestic violence), measure women's attitude towards violence, and to determine the main factors behind domestic violence among women.

Study population, data and variable definitions
Secondary analysis of DHS 2005 data (El-Zanaty & Associates, 2005). The DHS is quantitative and cross sectional research, targeting ever married women between 15-49 years old. The inclusion criteria were ever married women between 15-49 years old.
There are many variables; however some were selected for the statistical analysis in order to fulfill the aim and objective of the study, and those variables which considered for analysis in this paper were; socio-demographic characteristics such as; different age groups, duration of marriage, residence location (urban and rural), and attitudes toward hitting (tolerance and perceived exposure to hitting). The indicators which were used for measuring violence from the DHS 2005 were as followings: physical, emotional and sexual violence. All data were computed through the SPSS to create one variable namely domestic violence as a whole with the three types of it, as above, and was assigned zero if not exposed or experienced domestic violence, and assigned one if the woman had been exposed at any time of her life, to violence while married to her husband.

The United Nations General Assembly in 1993 defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life". Accordingly, violence against women encompasses the following: violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation and violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution and violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.
Moreover an indicator for women's empowerment has been built up by taking into consideration the final say in health care, and buying goods, daily requirements, and family visits, as well as taking into consideration education, employment, and decisions in budgets.

The women's empowerment variables and indicator was formed by considering any women who completed secondary degree and more to be counted as empowered and take the score one, if not take the zero score. In addition, if the is working for cash to be considered as empowered, and scored one, and if not zero. Additionally, if women take decisions alone, or with their husband to be considered as empowered, and to be scored one, and if not zero. Those decisions measures include; health care, buying goods, daily requirements, and family visits.

If the woman was empowered in the sex dimension, she will take the value six (maximum), if not empowered in any of them, she will take the value of zero. And on that concept and calculation, we assume any women with a value more than three would be considered empowered.

The United Nations population information network (popin) defines women's empowerment as containing the following components: women's sense of self-worth, their right to have and to determine choices, have access to opportunities and resources, have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home, and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally.

Statistical methods
Statistical package of social science SPSS version 12 was used, and the dependent variable used was domestic violence and the independent variables used were rural / urban areas, agree to be hit, duration of marriage, and empowerment indicators.

Basic descriptive analysis (frequency distribution table) and logistic regression analyses were performed on the data set.

The purpose of these two sets of analyses was to determine the association between the women's empowerment and domestic violence variables, and the simple logistic regression was applied to investigate the relationship between two variables (dichotomous) to predicate how empowering women could be achieved and measured.

The frequency was applied to estimate the percentage of domestic violence occurrences among women, and those who agree to be hit, and percentage of empowerment against domestic violence, and the estimated findings were as following;

About thirty-six percent of women in the sample were ever exposed to different sorts of domestic violence by their current husband whereas 64.1% are not. And about 49.7 % felt it was justified and agreed to be hit; while 14.2 % would not agree (missing data were 36.1%). 55.5 % were empowered according to our indicators (Figure 1).

Figure 1: % of DV, agree to hit and EW

This model showed that there is minimal difference between rural and urban areas in relation to domestic violence. On the other hand, the empowered women and those who disagree to be hit are less exposed (OR = 1.774 and 1.633 respectively, p < 0.05). In addition, women in the extreme age groups (15-19, and >40) and recently married are less exposed to domestic violence as well. This can be illustrated by the following Table 4:

Table 4 presents the logistic regression analysis.

So our regression analyses found that extreme age groups, and a recent marriage, and less tolerance to domestic violence (disagreeing to be hit) were important factors in predicting violence against women.

The aim of this study was to determine the main factors of domestic violence, and its prevalence, also measure women's attitude to domestic violence, and build up indicators for women's empowerment, and as the results showed about 36 % of women were exposed to different sorts of domestic violence, and 49.7 % agreed to be hit, and 55.5% were empowered according to our indicators findings.

Taken together, these study findings show that women's empowerment and experience of domestic violence are closely associated. As this study was carried out to see if we can tackle domestic violence in the short and long run vision, by empowering women we have decided to work on raising simple measures such as increasing education of women, working opportunities, and who should have the (decision-making capabilities and control over their lives) right for final say, and the woman's attitude toward domestic violence.

Those measures and indicators were found to be closely related and associated to reduce domestic violence prevalence, and therefore this would support our proposed hypothesis. The literature reveals there has been limited critical discussion of the inter-relationship between domestic violence and women's empowerment. Also there is scarce research on domestic violence against women in some Arab countries. This study has found that empowering women would tackle this issue (Kavita Sethuraman, 2008).
As our analysis showed that the empowered women and those who disagree with being hit are less exposed. In addition, women in the youngest age group (15-19) and recently married are less exposed to domestic violence as well. Also those women become more empowered as they get older (40+).
After all, women's lack of empowerment is believed to be an important factor in the persistence of her abuse. On the other hand, measuring women's empowerment is challenging, because the term itself is often poorly defined (Kavita Sethuraman, 2008). In this study, we created indicators for empowerment of women and then analysed them to see the association.

The generally expected key factor for a clear concept that defines women's empowerment relates to choices, control, and power. After all, women's empowerment is conceptualized as a utility of women's access to and control over resources, which extends to their decision-making capabilities regarding household decisions, employment opportunities and having their own income, household assets and expenditure, fertility, sexuality, and freedom of movement (physical mobility) and their control over material and intangible resources such as property, information and time; their position within the household, their experience of domestic violence; and their education (Kavita Sethuraman, 2008).

Another argument as to what would make women experience Domestic violence is gender inequality and women's lack of empowerment (Kavita Sethuraman, 2008).
This study has looked for associations between indicators of women's empowerment and domestic violence, and it has showed that if women's empowerment is raised, then the prevalence of domestic violence would decrease. So a strong association would be there. As for example the increase in women's education, and maternal employment significantly decreased the domestic violence prevalence. Also if women contribute more to total household income they are less likely to be exposed to domestic violence.