Foreign Policy Blogs

Conjugal violence – A bitter truth

The other day a young woman handed me with what I initially thought was a flyer.  She was collecting donations for Amnesty International.  But it turned out that the flyer was a guide on conjugal violence – most typically for women being beaten in silence by their husbands or boyfriends.

We have all heard the stories and as well as the more atrocious ones – like honor killings – a chilling reality that must be stopped.  But this flyer was about Europe and as I look at it – the figures are astounding – 1 in 5 women in Europe suffers from conjugal violence according to AI.

Watch this clip from the European Policy Action Center on Violence Against Women.  The video gathers testimonies from various women in Europe and their struggle to end all forms of violence against women.

 

Author

Nikolaj Nielsen

Nikolaj Nielsen has a Master's of Journalism and Media degree from a program partnership of three European universities - University of Arhus in Denmark, University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Swansea University in Wales. His work has been published at Reuters AlertNet, openDemocracy.net, the New Internationalist and others.

Areas of Focus:
Torture; Women and Children; Asylum;

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