New York - More than half of married women in Morocco have been victims of at least one act of domestic violence inflicted either by their partners or other family members.
According to a national survey conducted by the High Commission for Planning (HCP) on the prevalence of violence against women, in 2009, 3.7 million married females in Morocco (55 percent) suffered domestic abuse by their husbands.
The study also revealed that 13.5 percent of women aged 18-64 have been victims of violence inflicted by a family member, totaling 1.3 million females.
Domestic violence in urban areas reached 56.1 percent against 53.3 percent in rural areas. Meanwhile, family violence in urban areas reached 14.3 percent against 12.3 percent in rural areas.
In regards to the types of domestic violence, the study revealed that in the conjugal environment, the most prevalent form of abuse was psychological violence (38.7 percent), followed by infringement of individual liberties (30.3 percent), and insults/verbal humiliation (22.4 percent).
Threats of aggression and physical abuse ranked 6.6 and 5.7 percent, respectively.
In regards to family violence, the most common form was emotional abuse at 10.3 percent, and verbal humiliation at 6.1 percent.
According to the study, abuse in the family was also in the form of the intervention of parents in the personal choices of their children, namely the choice of women’s clothing (14 percent) choice of friends (17.9 percent), and preventing women from going out of their parents’ home (15.7 percent).
In terms of the socio-economic characteristics of the victims of domestic violence, 61.6 percent are under the age of 40, come mainly from urban areas (60.3 percent), lack formal education (56.8 per cent) and were married before the age of 25.
On the other hand, most women who suffered domestic violence within the family setting were women aged 30 (69.8 percent) from urban areas (63.1 percent).
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