Nearly a quarter of Chinese women have suffered domestic violence in their marriage, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) announced Tuesday.
Tan Lin, a spokesperson for the ACWF said its subsidiaries across China receive about 50,000 domestic violence cases each year. Tan described domestic violence as a "cancer of social development".
Results of a gender-based violence study carried out by Chinese researchers, released in May, found that 52 percent of male respondents had committed "an act of domestic violence" against their partners. Around one in five men said they had "forced their partners to have sex".
The government has stalled on enacting targeted legislation to curb domestic violence, despite years of lobbying by feminist NGOs. China in this regard lags behind other developing countries that have serious problems with violence against women, such as India and Bangladesh, which passed an anti-domestic-violence law in 2010.
A series of activities were held across China on Monday to commemorate the 14th International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The ACWF also released statistics showing that 30.6 percent of victims of domestic violence think seeking help will be of "no use", while 30 percent believe that domestic violence should be kept a "private matter". The ACWF urged women (and men) who suffer from domestic violence to call the federation's hotline on 12338.
[Image: Propaganda poster from 1978, caption reads "Move forward with great speed! To build up the nation, to defend the nation". Via: Chinese Posters]
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