Differences in the acceptance of wife abuse among ethnic minority Garo and Santal and mainstream Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh

Studies on wife abuse in Bangladesh predominantly include the mainstreamBengalipopulation, although there are at least 27 ethnic minority communities including a few 'female-centered' matrilineal groups living in the country. This study explored ethnic differences in the attitudinal acceptance of wife abuse among matrilineal ethnic minorityGaro, patrilineal ethnic minoritySantal, and mainstream patriarchalBengalicommunities in rural Bangladesh. Adopting a cross-sectional design, the study included 1,929 women and men randomly selected from 24Garo,Santal, andBengalivillages. Multivariate Poisson regression was performed to predict the number of contextual events, where the respondents attitudinally endorsed wife abuse. Of the sample, 33.2% were fromGaro, 33.2% fromSantal, and 33.6% from theBengalicommunities. The acceptance of wife abuse was high in the sample; specifically, 34.1% of the respondents accepted physical wife abuse, 67.5% accepted emotional abuse, and 71.6% accepted any abuse (either physical or emotional) at least on one contextual reason provided in a 10-item scale. The mean for accepting any abuse was 3.0 (SD= 2.8), emotional abuse 2.3 (SD= 2.2), and physical abuse 0.8 (SD= 1.4). The study showed that the rates of accepting any abuse and physical abuse were respectively 16% and 56% lower amongGaroas well as 14% and 33% lower amongSantalthan that of theBengalicommunity. Data also revealed that individual level factors like younger age, higher education, prestigious occupation as well as family level factors such as higher income, female mobility, and female family authority were inversely associated with the acceptance of wife abuse in the sample. It appears that the gender regime of a society has a great influence on the attitudes toward wife abuse. We argue that a comprehensive socio-cultural transformation of the patriarchal societies into a gender equal order is imperative for the prevention of widespread wife abuse in the country