The rural-urban disparity in the women’s justification of intimate partner violence and Awareness of Domestic Violence Act 2010 in Bangladesh

The purpose of this study is to analyze the demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with women's justification of partner violence and the Domestic Violence Act of 2010 in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. To do so, two nationwide surveys in Bangladesh (2007 BDHS & 2017-–18 BDHS) were analyzed using the Chi-square test and binary logistic regression. Moreover, to understand women's awareness towards the Domestic Violence Act 2010, the study conducted 30 depth face-to-face interviews in urban and rural areas. According to the 2017 BDHS, women’s justification of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Bangladesh declined to 20.6% from 31.6% in 2007, reflecting a decrease to 16.9% from 27.2% in urban region and 22.0% from 34.3% in rural region. This study identified that Rangpur division is a geographical hotspot for rural women justifying intimate partner violence. Moreover, the study found that women with higher education, higher wealth index, have access in mass media, and have higher autonomy in family decision making in urban and rural areas were less likely to justify of partner violence compared to their counterparts. The depth study found that most of the women were not aware of the provisions of Domestic Violence Act 2010 in Bangladesh. In general, the study identified that the education level of spouses and women's autonomy are crucial determinants in reducing women's justification of IPV. It is important to include different forms of family violence and the Domestic Violence Act in the syllabus of secondary education.