Impact of Wife Battering on the Family

Wife battering is a common phenomenon in developing countries especially in South Asia. Pakistan is no exception to this social phenomenon and especially in rural areas wife battering is common and accepted as norm to legitimize the domination of masculinity. To explore this social phenomenon, a study was conducted in the rural areas of District Toba Tek Singh of Province Punjab. Data was collected from the married women through a pre-designed interview schedule. More than half of the respondents were illiterate and married to blood relatives, mostly with first cousin. Low participation in decision making, female subordination and wife battering was a common phenomenon. Husband desire to dominate, instigation of in-laws, and husband addiction appeared to be the major reasons behind wife battering in the study area. Battering caused many psychological problems such as psychological stress, fear and humiliation in the entire family. The children who experienced the beating of their mother developed aggressive attitude and also turned into delinquents. Establishment of family counseling centers, involvement of print and electronic media to highlight influence of family violence against women through panel discussion involving victims, sociologist, psychologists and community leader will be fruitful to change the attitude towards spousal violence and violence against women. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p34