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How do attitudes toward women's rights in southern Iraq differ between men and women? How do these attitudes compare to such things as domestic violence rates?

A team of researchers surveyed 1991 people living in major cities in three governorates in southern Iraq (representing 16,520 household members). Part of what the authors wanted to uncover was attitudes about women's rights and rates of domestic violence.

Attitudes about Women's Rights and Roles in Society

How do men and women compare with respect to their attitudes about women's rights?

The authors ask a range of questions regarding women's rights and compare men's and women's attitudes on these questions.

Table 1. Comparison of Men's and Women's Attitudes toward Women's Rights in Southern Iraq

Key: women are significantly higher than men; men are significantly higher than women; no significant difference between women and men

Attitude about Women's Rights	Weighted Percent of Women Who Agree	Weighted Percent of Men Who Agree	Significant Difference between Men and Women?
Women should have equal access to education	97	91
Women should have equal work opportunities	81	70
There are reasons to restrict work opportunities outside the home for women at the present time	52	57
Women should be able to associate with persons of their choosing	51	38
Women should be able to move about in public without restriction	31	25
Women should be able to express themselves freely	78	73
Women should have the same right as men to decide the number and timing of children	92	87
The decision to use birth control should be decided by the woman only	11	0.05
The Ministry of Health should include women in decisions regarding women's health	91	95
More should be done to protect women and girls from having sex when they do not want to	54	68
Women and girls need more education about their rights to refuse sex	49	41
The Ministry of Health should have a policy for when it is appropriate for women to use birth control	73	76
Any woman has the right to refuse sex	47	54
Any woman has the right to refuse sex if a man refuses to use a condom	38	42
It is a wife's obligation to have sex with her husband even if she disagrees	61	65
A good wife obeys her husband even if she disagrees	14	13
A man has a right to beat his wife if she disobeys	54	50
Strict dress codes for women are appropriate	96	97

Access to Education and Work

Even though men were statistically less likely to support equal access to education and work opportunities than women, the large majority of both sexes agreed that women should have these rights (see the Table 1 above). For example, 97% of women say that women should have equal access to education, compared to 91% of men. While this 6% difference is statistically significant, it is unclear whether this different has much practical importance.

Men and women were also similar in their attitudes about whether there were reasons at the time of the survey to restrict women and girls access to education or work (the difference in work attitudes [57% for men and 52% for women] was statistically significant while the difference in attitudes about education [51% for men and 52% for women] was not). Again, it is unclear whether statistical significance equates to practical significance. Also, the difference between the general attitudes about work and education and the attitudes about “reasons at the present time” may reflect the dangerous situation in southern Iraq at the time.

Women's Right to Refuse Sex

Regarding women's right to refuse sex, there was no difference between men and women. Support for these attitudes was lower (between about 40% and 65% depending on the specific question). Interestingly, men's and women's attitudes about protecting women's and girl's right to refuse sex were significantly different. However, in this case, men were more likely to support more being done protect a woman's right to refuse sex than women (68% for men, 54% for women).

Wives Obeying Husbands and Husbands Beating Wives

There was no statistically significant difference between men and women with respect to attitudes about a woman's obligation to obey her husband if she disagrees with him (14% for women and 13% for men) or his right to beat her if she disobeyed (54% for women and 50% for men).

Public Access and Political Participation

In general, Iraqi women were more likely to say that women should have more freedom to move about in public and associate with whom they want than were men. Though, as with a women's right to express herself freely, the majority of men and women agreed that women should have this right. Even though men were statistically less likely to support this, the difference between men and women was small (78% for women and 73% for men).

With respect to political participation, the authors state, “Neither men nor women indicated full support for women's civil and political rights, including freedom to move about in public and to participate in government.” However, it is difficult to completely square this statement with their finding that 91% of women and 95% of men believe that the Ministry of Health should include women in decisions regarding women's health. What is even more startling about this finding is that men were significantly more likely to support women's participation than women were.

Domestic Violence

The issues of whether a husband has a right to beat his wife or whether a wife has a right to refuse sex raise the question about whether these attitudes translate into actual instances of domestic violence.

Respondents were asked whether they had been beaten by their spouse and whether they had been forced to have sex against their will.

Beating a Spouse

Three percent of men reported being beaten by their wives and 8% of women reported being beaten by their husbands. So, even though about half of both men and women say that a man has the right to beat his wife if she disobeys, the actual rates of beating are much lower (for instance, 54% of women think a husband may beat his wife, but only 8% of wives report being beaten).

Sex Without Consent

The authors also understand “domestic violence” in terms of a spouse's ability to refuse sex if they are not interested. The authors say that 3% of women and 2% of men report being forced to have sex with their spouse when they didn't want to. This lack of difference in actual rate mirrors the lack of difference in attitudes about a wife's right to refuse sex. There was also a very large discrepancy between the belief that a woman should have sex with her husband against her will (61% for women and 65% for men) and the actual rate (3%). The authors did not ask about attitudes regarding a husband's obligation to have sex with his wife if he didn't want to.

Not in My House!

How do we make sense of the discrepancy between attitudes and reality with respect to spouse beating and forced sex?

What questions about general attitudes miss is the nature of the actual relationships. Given that 3% of men (compared to 8% of women) admit to being beaten by their spouse, it doesn't seem unreasonable to conclude that a husband's violence may be, in part, because of the possibility that his wife will retaliate.

Or, coming at it a different way, an abstract “right” does not take into account actual marriage relationships. A husband's feelings toward his wife may trump any “right” he has to beat his wife. One can imagine an Iraqi husband saying, “Well, it may be alright for a man to beat his wife if she disobeys, and I know people who do that sort of thing. But, I can tell you, that doesn't happen in my house!”

All this is not to say that the the rate of domestic violence is not high (the authors estimate the personal experience of domestic violence at a rate of 50 per 1000, compared to 7.7 per 1000 in the U.S.). However, the data from the survey points to a sharp difference between the official attitude toward spousal relationships and the way these relationships are actually lived.

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Other Keytexts from this source

Baath Party Groups Commit Human Rights Abuses in Southern Iraq

Unsupported Conclusions about Women's Rights and Women's Health in Southern Iraq