42.1% of Kuwaiti men face domestic violence
Kuwait: A government funded study has concluded that 33 percent of Kuwaitis face domestic violence. This was revealed during a press conference on Sunday at the Society Development Center in Yarmouk by the Domestic Violence Study Committee, which includes members from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and other relevant ministries.
Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Assistant Undersecretary for Planning and Development Awatef Al-Qattan, who also heads the inter-ministerial committee to study domestic violence, held several government institutions and non-profit organizations responsible for addressing this phenomenon, particularly local media.
She added that domestic violence is a social issue, given the gravity of this phenomenon, adding that the importance of this issue prompted the ministry to form a committee comprised of members from the Ministries of Interior and Justice, as well as the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, among others. The official pointed out that the committee conducted a study over a period of 15 months and reached the desired results with proposed recommendations.
"Due to the spread of domestic violence in all forms in various societies, the ministry deemed it imperative to conduct a field study on domestic violence to understand the causes and effects and to reach certain recommendations with a view towards curbing it and its repercussions with the participation of all the mentioned parties," the official noted.
Representative for the Ministry of Interior on the committee Brigadier Yahya Al-Saleh pointed to the outcome of the study, saying that the study included 1,569 families as a sample on domestic violence in Kuwaiti society. He added that it was established that 523 families, representing 33.4%, experienced a form of violence compared to 66.6% that affirmed they had not experienced domestic violence.
The official explained that domestic violence includes physical, material, psychological and sexual violence, noting that the sample indicated that the negative causes of domestic violence included divorce, continued disputes between couples, deviation, infidelity and psychological problems.
The study also noted that 23% of families surveyed said that domestic violence has left a negative impact, as compared to 77% who do not believe so. Meanwhile, the study found that 42.1% of men face domestic violence compared to 16.8% of women.
The study recommended, among other points, that the government attach more importance to this issue by including it in its five-year development plan.
