Candies in hell: women’s experiences of violence in Nicaragua
Section snippets
Background
Gender-based violence is increasingly receiving global attention as a significant public health and human rights issue (Heise, 1996). One of the most common forms of gender-based violence is domestic violence or wife abuse, which is defined in this paper as a series of coercive behaviours, including physical abuse towards adult and adolescent women, by current or former male intimate partners. It has been estimated that in most countries between 10–50% of women have experienced wife abuse (
Methods
The study was carried out in the municipality of León, Nicaragua’s second largest city, with a population of 195,000 inhabitants. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used. A survey was carried out to determine the magnitude and characteristics of wife abuse on a representative sample of women, whereas interviews and discussions were used both to design the survey and to interpret its results as well as to examine the significance of violence in women’s lives.
“I don’t know why I’m still alive…”
Ana Cristina was married at the age of 15 to a man in his late thirties. Her husband was a soldier, a Sandinista, which in the early days of the revolution carried with it a romantic aura that quickly earned him the respect and approval of Ana Cristina’s mother. Shortly after the marriage, he began to beat Ana Cristina savagely and continued to do so regularly throughout the subsequent 5 years. She learned to listen for him at night and be ready to escape if necessary, with the children.
…I had
Conclusions
The results of the research indicate that wife abuse is a serious public health problem in Nicaragua, with devastating consequences for women and children. The data suggest that a significant proportion of the female population is currently experiencing severe physical violence from their intimate partners, often accompanied by emotional and sexual abuse.
The fact that children are so often witnesses to violence against their mothers is of particular concern, not only because it exposes them to
Acknowledgements
This research was carried out with financial support from Umeå University, Gruppo Voluntariado Civile (GVC) and the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida). The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper by Lori Heise, Kjerstin Dahlblom, Claudia Garcia Moreno, Lennarth Nyström, Christine Bradley and Hans Stenlund.
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