Women and Domestic Violence

When I opened The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World to chapters 7-9, I was hit with bright colors and numbers... Many many numbers. I started to read the two pages in my western, left to right way. The startling numbers jumped off of the page; instantly making me compare the numbers of so many killed a year... or a week... to that nations total population. I read the little snippet about the percentage of how many women believe it is okay for "a husband to beat his wife for one or more specific reasons-burning food..."(28). For Egypt, 94% of women believe that it is acceptable for husbands to beat the wife. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine, who is half Egyptian, and another friend of Mexican descent. I brought up this fact, and the first girl replied to me, agreeing with the fact. It startled me; but I thought about how she plays the role of the stereotypical woman. She believes that women do belong in the kitchen, she is often taken advantage of (not in a sexual way) by male friends of ours. The oppression of women goes both ways- women often accept it. I kept on reading and the next eye opening facts were talking about so-called "honor killings". The mere idea of a woman being killed just because they were sexually inappropriate for that specific society. The highest number was in Pakistan for the year 2006, with 4,100+. And then it kept on going... The number of women killed by Domestic Violence... the number of cases reported... And I felt my heart go out to women who are defenseless and who society has deemed as lesser beings. Each day women are killed by husbands... boyfriends... stalkers... step fathers.... whomever, merely because the male views them as something to be used, something that when they are done or if it doesn't work properly, they can just be thrown away.