العنف ضد الفتيات : دراسة في العنف القائم على النوع الاجتماعي

Abstract EN

All studies that take from violence against women as main subject for her, including western studies are focusing on violence against women in intimate relationships where the abuser is a husband or a life partner.

In most MENA societies with its patriarchal culture women become victims of violence in an early age and without being in intimate relationship that is because the abuser might be the father, mother or brother.

The purpose of this study is to explore reasons and types of violence that girls might be subjected to in the Saudi society, based on information gathered from 500 college girls where most of them are in age of eighteen to twenty years old.

The main findings of the study are: the majority of the respondents seemed to agree on the existence of family violence in the Saudi society and in a way that is far more than it’s known.

The respondents have also agreed that children regardless of their gender are the most victims of violence followed by wives and girls, 33.77%, 29.25% and 27.1% respectively.

Fathers use violence in 37% of the cases, followed by mothers in 28% and brothers in 10% of the cases.

71% of the respondents have experienced violence as growing up and 24% are still dealing with it.

As for the types of violence, girls are subjected to beatings, preventing them or threats to prevent them from education or work, sexual abuse, not taking their opinion in marriage or preventing them of marriage or marrying them in young age, verbal abuse and insults, seizure of salary or inheritance, imprisonment or prohibition of going out.

Types and practices of violence that might not all or most of it are known to girls in other societies and/or harm that cannot be imagine or perceived by others.