Imagine this incident. The husband returns home and he is very tired and stressed out. He is upset because his boss gave him a warning. He is also upset because some stranger had parked in his space in front of the building. Furthermore, he is worried about the bills he has to pay at the end of the month, in addition to other things. Once at home, his wife tells him about their children’s low grades and misbehavior at school. The husband gets mad and starts beating up the children. The wife tries to intervene to stop the violence, but instead of things calming down, the husband beats the children and the wife at the same time. This is not a movie or a story. This is the real world of domestic violence where wives are beaten up by their husbands with or without a reason. Domestic violence against women is a serious problem that threatens the physical and emotional wellbeing of women, and that negatively affects the quality of their life.

The beating of women is a very old story that has been practiced for many centuries. Hundreds of years ago, women were treated as a commodity. They were in fact treated as slaves who had to obey the orders of those males who dominated them. These relationships existed in the male-dominant societies all over the world. Beating women was part of this culture, since the use of violence was applied to remind women that they are to remain under the control of their male masters.

Beating is part of the obedience relationship. In most religions, women are expected to obey their husbands. Both Christianity and Islam for example expect and order the woman to obey her husband and to submit to his will. The same is applied to other religions as well. So what happens is that when the woman does not obey her husband or if the husband feels that his wife is not obeying him, he resorts to violence to make things right for himself. This means