Abstract
BackgroundViolence against women has particular importance for women’s health and wellbeing in the Arab world, where women face persistent barriers to social, political and economic equality. This review aims to summarize what is known about the prevalence of physical, sexual and emotional/psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in the 22 countries of the Arab League, including geographic coverage, quality and comparability of the evidence.MethodsA systematic review of IPV prevalence in Arab countries was carried out among peer-reviewed journal articles and national, population-based survey reports published by international research programmes and/or governments. Following PRISMA guidelines, Medline and the Social Sciences Citation Index were searched with Medical Subject Headings terms and key words related to IPV and the names of Arab countries. Eligible sources were published between January 2000 and January 2016, in any language. United Nations databases and similar sources were searched for national surveys. Study characteristics, operational definitions and prevalence data were extracted into a database using Open Data Kit Software. Risk of bias was assessed with a structured checklist.ResultsThe search identified 74 records with population or facility-based IPV prevalence data from eleven Arab countries, based on 56 individual datasets. These included 46 separate survey datasets from peer-reviewed journals and 11 national surveys published by international research programmes and/or governments. Seven countries had national, population-based IPV estimates. Reported IPV prevalence (ever) ranged from 6% to more than half (59%) (physical); from 3 to 40% (sexual); and from 5 to 91% (emotional/ psychological). Methods and operational definitions of violence varied widely, especially for emotional/psychological IPV, limiting comparability.ConclusionsIPV against women in Arab countries represents a public health and human rights problem, with substantial levels of physical, sexual and emotional/psychological IPV documented in many settings. The evidence base is fragmented, however, suggesting a need for more comparable, high quality research on IPV in the region and greater adherence to international scientific and ethical guidelines. There is a particular need for national, population-based data to inform prevention and responses to violence against women, and to help Arab countries monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Highlights
Violence against women has particular importance for women’s health and wellbeing in the Arab world, where women face persistent barriers to social, political and economic equality
This systematic review aims to describe what is known about the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in the 22 countries of the Arab League, including the geographic coverage, quality and comparability of the evidence
Some governments had invested in repeated, population-based violence against women (VAW) national data collection, but relatively few Arab countries had even one round of national IPV prevalence estimates, and only three countries (Comoros, Egypt and Jordan) — those with Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) violence modules — had estimates included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) global database
Summary
Violence against women has particular importance for women’s health and wellbeing in the Arab world, where women face persistent barriers to social, political and economic equality. By many measures, Arab women across the region continue to face barriers to full social, economic and political equality. All 14 Arab countries included in the 2017 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap index ranked in the bottom 28 of 144 countries, based on gender gaps in health, education, political empowerment and economic participation [3]. While female age at marriage has risen dramatically in some high-income Arab states, rates of child marriage remain substantial in countries such as Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, parts of Egypt, and among Palestinians in Gaza [5]
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