25 percent of married Syrian women beaten

DAMASCUS, Syria — Observers are applauding a recent study by the United Nations as a milestone while lamenting its findings that 25 percent of married Syrian women have been beaten.

The study, conducted under the supervision of the quasi-governmental General Union of Women in Syria, selected nearly 1,900 families at random and questioned the men and women separately, according to a report by The New York Times April 10. Results were released recently as part of a report on Syria by the U.N. Development Fund for Women.

“In Syria there was simply no data on violence against women; formal studies hadn’t ever been done before,” Shirin Shukri, a manager of the project at the U.N. regional offices in Jordan, told The Times. “The issue of violence against women was kept silent here for many years. But we’re making people in Syria aware that this is something that happens everywhere in Europe, in Asia, in the United States, and this is opening up discussion.”

Reports about the findings have been published by Syrian media outlets, The Times said, and experts are hoping the attention will lead to “practical action on the ground.”

“The most surprising thing is that for the first time in Syria, a semigovernmental organization, the women’s union, has admitted that there is a problem,” Maan Abdul Salam, a campaigner for women’s rights, told The Times.