486330

research-article2013

VAW19310.1177/1077801213486330Violence Against WomenAssaf and Chaban

Article

Domestic Violence Against

Single, Never-Married
Women in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory

Violence Against Women

19(3) 422441
The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1077801213486330
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Shireen Assaf1 and Stephanie Chaban2

Abstract
This study examines the association between decision-making power, with other
background variables, and domestic violence against single, never-married women
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Secondary analysis using data from
a 2006 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics domestic violence survey revealed
that decision-making power and age were significant predictors of physical and
psychological abuse. Relation to household head, refugee status, education,
employment, and locality were not significant; region was only significant for
psychological abuse. Further studies are needed to understand what factors allow
single, never-married women to exercise decision-making power in the household
and its association with domestic violence.
Keywords
autonomy, decision-making power, determinants of violence, Palestinian single
women

Introduction
In recent decades, violence against women has been acknowledged as one of the greatest threats to female health and safety worldwide (Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg,
Heise, & Watts, 2005). In 1993, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women defined violence against women as:

1University

of Padova, Padova, Italy

Consultant, San Diego, CA, USA

2Independent

Corresponding Author:
Shireen Assaf, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Emails: shireen122@gmail.com, assaf@stat.unipd.it

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Assaf and Chaban

. . . any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual
or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Violence against women can take many forms and may span the lifecycle: from infanticide to sexual abuse, from early marriage to sex trafficking, and from genital mutilation to partner abuse. However, domestic violence seems to be the most pervasive
form of violence experienced by women. At least one in three women will experience
some form of violence or abuse by her partner, and it is estimated that one in five
women will be raped or threatened with rape in her lifetime (UNITE to End Violence
against Women, 2008). Likewise, a World Health Organization (WHO) multicountry
study reported intimate partner violence prevalence rates ranging from 15% to 71%
over a womans lifetime (Garcia-Moreno et al., 2005).
A number of international documents have identified violence against women as a
human rights offense and have prioritized its eradication. The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) outlines
the extent to which states should go to ensure the safety, security, and well-being of
their female citizens. The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) points out that violence
against women not only denies women their fundamental freedoms, but also is an
impediment to achieving equality, development, and peace. Millennium Development
Goal 3 (2000) argues that the combination of education, wage employment, and political participation will reduce violence against women and girls (United Nations
Millennium Project, 2005).
On March 8, 2009, International Womens Day, Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas symbolically signed CEDAW into effect, without reservations. That same year,
the Palestinian National Authoritys Program of the Thirteenth Government (2009)
committed itself to the eradication of violence against women. Palestinian civil society
has been working with governmental institutions to cultivate services for victims of
domestic violence; examples include a family violence hotline, multiple shelters, family defense units at the police, and the development of a comprehensive referral system. It is within this framework that this article attempts to measure the factors that
contribute to domestic violence against single, never-married Palestinian women in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Rates of Domestic Violence in the Middle East and North

Africa
Violence in the domestic sphere, whether directed at males or females, can take many
forms: physical, psychological, sexual, and even economic. Many studies have been
conducted in an attempt to measure these forms of abuse; comparability is difficult as
different cultural settings may produce different forms of violence. In the Middle East/
North Africa (MENA) region, most figures and data focus on married women with
particular attention to spousal abuse and abuse during pregnancy, though some document the abuse of other female family members; violence among unmarried couples is

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

not usually measured. However, given the centrality of the family and household in the
MENA region, it is necessary to view domestic violence as including violence perpetrated by a variety of family members, including the extended family. Likewise, victims are not solely intimate partners, spouses, or underage children; they may include
adult family members who have never been married, are widowed, or are related by
blood rather than marriage.
While some research on domestic violence has shown that the extended family
structure may serve to protect females from violence in the home (Clark, Hill, Jabbar,
& Silverman, 2009; Clark, Silverman, Shahrouri, Everson-Rose, & Groce, 2010),
interfamily dynamics may also serve to perpetuate and condone abuse. Research on
domestic violence against women with cultural and ethnic differences indicates that
the presence of extended family allows for abuse to take place, facilitates the abuse, or
serves as a means to maintain the abusive status quo (Kasturirangan, Krishnan, &
Riger, 2004). Thus, researchers are now calling for a redefinition of domestic violence
(Shively, 2011). Usage of the term domestic violence must consider the multiple
relationships between different family members and not simply intimate or parent
child relationships. Thus, a broader, all encompassing definition of the term domestic within domestic violence is utilized within this study.
Rates of domestic violence vary within the MENA region. Documented in a literature review of violence against women in Arab and Islamic countries, a national
random sample in Egypt (1996) revealed that one in three ever-married women had
been beaten at least once since marriage and one third during pregnancy. In Tunisia
(1998), 33.8% of women seeking out primary care reported having been beaten by a
husband or family member at least once. The emergency unit of a hospital in
Casablanca, Morocco (1993) documented 1,506 cases of violence against women
that translated into an average occurrence of four cases a day (Douki, Nacef,
Bouasker, & Ghachem, 2003). In Syria, 26% of married women reported at least
three instances of abuse during the year, while weekly battering occurred among
3.3% of married women (Maziak & Asfar, 2003). According to researchers, Bedouin
Arab women in Israel have a 48% lifetime exposure rate to violence in their families
(Cwikel, Lev-Wiesel, & Al-Krenawi, 2003). In a review of domestic violence in
North Africa, previous reports cited 17,000 instances of gender-based violence in
Morocco in early 2008, and 7,400 women filed domestic violence claims in Algeria
in 2009 (Sadiqi, 2010). A recent family public health survey from Iraq documented
83.1% of women reporting at least one form of marital control. Overall, younger
married women were the most likely to report restrictions; 74.5% of those aged 15
to 24 years reported having to ask permission to seek health care, compared to 60.3%
of those aged 40 to 49 years. As for emotional or psychological violence, 33.4% of
women reported at least one form of violence and 21.2% of women experienced
physical violence (Ministry of Health Iraq, Central Organization for Statistics &
Information Technology, Ministry of Health, Kurdistan, Kurdistan Regional
Statistics Office, & WHO, Iraq, 2007).
In studies of domestic violence, women are commonly asked about abuse from
their partners. For single, never-married women living in their natal households, there

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Assaf and Chaban

is no one individual commonly believed to be the abuser since there may be several
relatives living within the household (this is especially true for the MENA region)
who may perpetrate the abuse. However, a number of studies on the MENA region
have attempted to identify the perpetrator. In Saudi Arabia, it was revealed that 30%
of male respondents had been violent toward a female family member, with female
misbehavior cited as the main reason for the abuse, in addition to disapproval over
dress and conduct for unmarried women. The most likely targets of such violence
were, in order of likelihood, sisters, mothers, sisters-in-law, aunts, and wives
(Almosaed, 2004). In a study of Qatari female students, 80% of whom were single
never-married women, it was found that 39% were abused by their brothers, 38% by
their fathers, and 22% reported abuse from their mothers (Al-Ghanim, 2009). A
study in Syria, conducted by UNIFEM and the General Union of Women (2006),
revealed that a family member was responsible for beating 80.4% of assaulted
women. Husbands were responsible for 54% of the cases; fathers and brothers
accounted for 36% and 3% of the abuse, respectively. According to a family health
survey in Jordan, 64.2% of women said a current or former partner had physically
assaulted them, yet, for those abused by a nonintimate partner, 22.1% were physically
assaulted by a brother, 19.9% by a father, and 18.5% by a mother (Department of
Statistics [Jordan] & Macro International, Inc., 2008). National research on violence
against women in Turkey revealed 39% of women were physically and 15% sexually
abused by their partner, whereas 18% were physically and 3% were sexually abused
by a nonpartner. The same research noted that the most common perpetrators in nonpartner abuse were fathers (42%), mothers (32%), and brothers (16%); (ICON
Institut Public Sector, Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies, & BNB, Ankara,
2009). Personal interviews and visits to shelters in Turkey revealed that women often
encountered a substantial amount of violence from in-laws, especially mothers-inlaw (Shively, 2011).

Determinants of Domestic Violence

As most research on domestic violence focuses on ever-partnered women, much of
the research used to study determinants of violence is also concentrated on this same
population with few exceptions. A study concerning a sample of married and unmarried women accessing hospital services in Syria found that married women were
more likely to be abused than unmarried women (Maziak & Asfar, 2003). This study
also found that the younger a married woman was, the more likely she was to suffer
from abuse. Studies have also found that women are more likely to be abused when
they have low education levels (Akyuz, Sahiner, & Bakkir, 2008; Gage & Hutchinson,
2006; Koenig, Stephenson, Ahmed, Jejeebhoy, & Campbell, 2006; Maziak & Asfar,
2003), are less educated than their husbands (Yount, 2005), are poorer (Koenig et al.,
2006; Yount, 2005), or live in rural areas (El-Zanaty, Hussein, Shawky, Way, &
Kishor, 1996; Maziak & Asfar, 2003). Conversely, it was found that higher education
among Bedouin Arab women in the Negev region of Israel increased abuse (Cwikel
et al., 2003).

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

Autonomy, Decision-Making Power, and Domestic

Violence
Levels of autonomy and decision-making power are important determinants of violence against women within the household and are found to be protective against violence in certain locales (Handwerker, 1998; Kaye, Mirembe, Bantebya, Johansson, &
Ekstrom 2006; Tiwari et al., 2005). Autonomy has also been shown to relate to higher
levels of education, labor force participation, and higher household wealth (Rammohan
& Johar, 2009). Therefore, by association, it is expected that these factors would also
reduce rates of domestic violence. However, a number of studies have documented
that women with greater household decision-making power have a higher risk of being
abused (Gage & Hutchinson, 2006; van der Hulst et al., 2006; Koenig, Ahmed,
Hossain, & Khorshed Alam Mozumder, 2003), including among couples that were
reported to have equal decision-making power (Flakje & Forste, 2006).
Within the MENA context, levels of education, wealth, and employment impacted
womens participation in household decision-making in Jordan. The higher the level
of education and wealth, coupled with the ability to work, made women more likely
to participate in household decision-making. The same survey revealed that
Jordanian women with high education levels (compared to no education and elementary education) were less likely to experience violence (emotional, physical, and
sexual) within the household (Department of Statistics [Jordan] & Macro
International, Inc., 2008).

Demographic and Sociocultural Setting Within the OPT

For the purpose of this article, the OPT refers to the noncontiguous territories of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip, aside from having
no geographical continuity, differ demographically, economically, politically, and
socially. The separation, both conceptual and physical, is due to the ongoing policy of
occupation and annexation instigated by the State of Israel (1967), the militarization
of the second Intifada (2000), and the marginalization of the Gaza Strip by Israel
(2006). In addition, the current siege on the Gaza Strip has caused further deterioration
of the socioeconomic situation in the territory, highlighted by a 23-day military strike
by the State of Israel begun in late December 2008 that left more than 1,400 Palestinians
dead (PCHR, 2009) and scores more injured. In the West Bank, the effects of expanding illegal Israeli settlements, the continued construction of the all-encircling
Separation Wall, and the fluctuating number of checkpoints that impede freedom of
movement, have also contributed to worsening conditions.
According to the latest census, the population of the OPT is 4.17 million, 2.12 million males, and 2.05 million females (PCBS, 2011). Literacy rates in the OPT are
relatively high overall at 94.9%, with a female literacy rate at 92.2% (PCBS, 2011).
Those who have completed a university-level education (Bachelors degree or higher)
totaled 10.4%, 8.3% of whom are female (PCBS, 2011). When comparing single,
never-married women to currently married women, single, never-married women

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Assaf and Chaban

have been found to be more educated, with 22.9% above 30 years having a secondary
and above level of education compared to 10.7% of currently married women of the
same age (Halabi, 2007). The labor force participation rate for females is 14.7%
(PCBS, 2011).
The proportion of never-married women is higher in the West Bank than in the
Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, the proportion has remained at 35% between 1995 and
2004; however, in the Gaza Strip the rate rose from approximately 27% in 1995 to
33% in 2004 (Khawaja, Assaf, & Jarallah, 2009). In fact, one in 10 Palestinian women
between the ages of 35 to 39 years are not married (Jarallah, 2008). This is considered
to be a distinctive age category in that if a woman continues to be unmarried at this age
she is not likely to ever marry.
Palestinian women live within a patriarchal society where they tend to exercise
little authority and power. Kinship ties are vital for survival in such an environment;
ones extended family provides not only a name and sense of belonging, but also protection, security, and guidance (Haj, 1992; Khawaja, 2000). As a patrilineal and
patrilocal society, the household serves as the location of a familys honor and status.
Thus, Palestinian women are expected to live under the authority of their families and,
once married, are transferred to the authority of their husbands home; it is rare that a
single, never-married woman is allowed to live under her own authority or on her own
and, if this is done, it is seen as controversial and problematic (Jarallah, 2008; Saar,
2004). In fact, single, never-married women in Palestinian culture are commonly
referred to as banat, or girls, until they are married, an indication that social status is
strongly linked to marriage and reproduction (Saar, 2004).
Since the start of the second Intifada, there has been an acknowledged decrease in
the freedoms experienced by women, especially when compared to the first Intifada
(Amireh, 2003). Part of this backlash can be blamed on the militarization of the second
Intifada, which has minimized the public activist role of women. Furthermore, the
growing Islamicization of the OPT has promoted more traditional roles for women,
including pressure on women and girls to wear the hijab, or veil (Holt, 2003;
Huntington, Fronk, & Chadwick, 2001) and a focus on women as reproducers of the
nation (Abu-Duhou, 2003).

Domestic Violence in the OPT

It is only within recent years that domestic violence has been quantitatively documented in the OPT. In 2006, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) conducted a Domestic Violence Survey examining instances of abuse among ever-married
women; single, never-married women over 18 years; children; and the elderly (PCBS,
2006). For ever-married women, it was found that 23.3% suffered physical abuse from
their husbands, 61.7% psychological abuse, and 10.9% sexual abuse at least once during the year 2005. There were higher rates of all forms of abuse in the West Bank
compared to the Gaza Strip. For single, never-married women the rates were found to
be 25% for physical abuse and 52.7% for psychological abuse experienced at least
once during the year 2005. Similar to their ever-married counterparts, the West Bank

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

had higher rates of abuse than the Gaza Strip. Exposure to sexual abuse was not asked
of single, never-married women, as it was seen as a culturally sensitive issue to ask of
a single woman. However, stories of sexual abuse of single, never-married women
have been documented by social workers and womens centers, including instances of
incest (Al-Masri, 2000; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2005).

Method
This study attempts to uncover the determinants of domestic violence against single,
never-married women in the OPT using a national domestic violence survey. The
hypothesis of the study is that physical abuse and psychological abuse are expected to
be significantly higher among single, never-married women with low decision-making
power. Such abuse is also expected to be higher among younger women, women who
are daughters of the household head, and women with lower education levels, outside
of the labor force, residing in rural or camp areas, or living within the Gaza Strip.

Source of Data
The data used in this study are from the PCBS Domestic Violence Survey that was
conducted between December 18, 2005-January 18, 2006. The number of households
in the sample for the survey was 4,212 households (2,772 in the West Bank and 1,440
in the Gaza Strip). The sampling frame used for the survey was from the 1997 Census
conducted by PCBS. The sample selected was a two-stage cluster, random and systematic selection. There were four targets in the survey: ever-married women, aged 15-64
years; children, aged 5 to 17 years (interviewed by proxy); elderly, 65 years and over;
and single, never-married women, aged 18 years and over.
This article focuses on the data collected from single, never-married women, aged
18 years and over. The number of single, never-married women found in the household
sample of the survey was 944 (654 in the West Bank and 290 in the Gaza Strip). The
nonresponse rate was 7.7% and was much higher in the West Bank at 10.4% compared
to the Gaza Strip at 1.7%. This nonresponse rate of single, never-married women in the
West Bank was the highest from all four of the target groups, whether from the West
Bank or the Gaza Strip, and resulted in 871 single, never-married women actually
responding to the survey. However, for the purpose of the analysis in this article, the
data were limited to only single, never-married women from 18 to 45 years old as there
were low frequencies of single, never-married women after 45 years, and analysis of
the outcome indicated 45 years as an appropriate cut-off point. This provided a total of
814 women for analysis and 769 women when the cases were weighted.

Measures
Combining all variables from the data that expressed these forms of domestic violence created two outcome variables for physical abuse and psychological abuse.
For physical abuse, the variables combined were from women who were asked if

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Assaf and Chaban

any of their household members used any of the following violent acts against them
during the year:

Threw something that could have hurt them

Twisted their arm or pulled their hair
Attacked them with a result of injury
Pushed them, attacked them with a sharp object
Beat on the head resulting in a coma
Hit with a belt or stick, strangled
Hit for several minutes or more
Grabbed strongly
Slapped
Attack resulting in breaking of bones
Singed or scorched

For psychological abuse the combined variables were:

Cursed or insulted
Told that they were fat or ugly
Destroyed or spoiled their property
Yelled or shouted at them
Went out shouting and angry during a row
Were told that they are a loose sister or daughter
Said things to provoke their anger

These variables for physical and psychological abuse gave options for single,
never-married women aged 18 years and over to answer the number of times they had
suffered the abuse; however, since these frequencies were low, the new outcome variables were recoded to be either suffered abuse or not (i.e., dichotomous variables).
Secondary analysis was performed using multilogistic bivariate and multivariate
regression for both these outcome variables with the main independent variable of
interest being decision-making power of single, never-married women in the household. These women were asked to what extent they felt that they were capable of making decisive decisions in the household in general and the options were: none, low,
medium, and high. This variable was recoded into two categories; having low to no
decision-making power and having middle to high decision-making power.
The other independent variables used in the analysis included: age (continuous
variable), relation to head of household (recoded according to frequencies to: daughter
or other relation, including household head, sister, mother, grandmother and granddaughter); refugee status (refugee or nonrefugee); education level (recoded according
to frequencies to: preparatory and less or secondary and over); work status (recoded
according to frequencies into: in the labor force, full-time student and not working, or
not working and not seeking work); locality type (urban, rural, or camp); and region
(West Bank or Gaza Strip).

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

Table 1. Distribution of Sample of Single Never-Married Women 18 to 45 Years old

According to Outcome and Background Variables.
Variable
Abused physically
Yes
No
Abused psychologically
Yes
No
Age
Relation to head
Daughter
Other relation
Refugee status
Refugee
Nonrefugee
Education level
Preparatory & less
Secondary +
Labor force status
In the labor force
Full-time student
Not working & not seeking
Locality type
Urban
Rural
Camp
Region
West Bank
Gaza Strip
Decision-making power
Low to none
Mid to high

N (769)

199
570

25.9
74.1

418
351
768

54.4
45.6
23.9 6.8 *

677
92

88.0
12.0

332
437

43.2
56.8

288
481

37.5
62.5

171
320
278

22.3
41.6
36.1

444
198
127

57.7
25.7
16.6

504
265

65.5
34.5

225
544

29.2
70.8

Note: *Age is a continuous variable with reported mean and standard deviation.

Results
Description of the Sample
The results indicated that 26% of single, never-married women in the sample were
physically abused in the household and that over half (54%) were psychologically
abused (see Table 1). The mean age, within the sample range from 18 to 45 years,
was found to be 23.9 6.8. The majority of the women were daughters (88%) of the
household head, with all other relations, including female-headed households,

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Assaf and Chaban

sisters, granddaughters, or other relatives accounting for the remaining 12% of the
sample. Most of the women had a secondary education or higher (62.5%). More
than a third of the sample (36.1%) was not working and not seeking work; 41.6%
were not working because they were full-time students, and 22.3% were in the
labor force. About 43% of the sample had refugee status; however, only 16.6%
lived in refugee camps, while more than half (57.7%) lived in urban areas. The
sample was also distributed proportionally over the OPT, with 34.5% living in the
Gaza Strip and 65.5% living in the West Bank. A large portion of the sample, 71%,
indicated that they had medium to high decision-making power within their
household.

Unadjusted Results
The unadjusted results found in Table 2 indicated that for physical abuse, only age and
decision-making power were significantly associated with abuse of single, never-married women. Relation to household head, refugee status, education level, labor force
status, and region were all found not to be significantly associated with physical abuse.
For psychological abuse, the results showed more variables with significant associations to age, relation to household head, education level, labor forces status, region,
and decision-making power. Only refugee status and locality type were found not to be
significantly associated with psychological abuse.

Adjusted Results
As shown in Table 3, two multilogistic regressions were conducted for the adjusted
analysis: one for physical abuse and the other for psychological abuse. For the physical abuse regression, only age, and decision-making power were significant predictors of abuse, as was found in the unadjusted results. For age, the results indicated
that the younger the woman, the more likely she was to be physically abused. For
decision-making power, those who reported low to no decision-making power were
2.5 times more likely to be physically abused than those who reported medium to
high decision-making power.
For psychological abuse, relation to household head, education level, and labor
force status lost their significance when compared to the unadjusted results. For age,
the results are similar to physical abuse, showing that the younger the woman, the
more likely she was to be abused. Also, similar to the results of the physical abuse
regression, those who reported low to no decision-making power were 2.5 times more
likely to be psychologically abused than those who reported medium to high decision-making power. One difference between the logistic regression of physical abuse
and that of psychological abuse was the region variable. In the logistic regression of
physical abuse, region was not significant. However, in the psychological abuse
regression, this variable was significant, with single, never-married women in the
West Bank twice as likely (OR 2.0) to experience psychological abuse as their counterparts in the Gaza Strip.

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26.6
20.7
25.2
26.3
25.3
26.2
23.3
30.3
22.3
25.2
27.3
25.8
26.4
24.5
38.7
20.6

84
115

73
126

40
97
62

112
54
33

133
65

87
112

180
19

Yes

138
433

371
200

332
144
95

133
223
216

215
355

249
322

497
73

0.94

No

61.3
79.4

73.6
75.5

74.8
72.7
74.2

76.7
69.7
77.7

74.7
73.8

74.8
73.7

73.4
79.3

Note: *p values are for two-tailed X2 test.

**Age is continuous variable with reported unadjusted OR value and p value.

Age **
Relation to head
Daughter
Other relation
Refugee status
Refugee
Nonrefugee
Education level
Preparatory & less
Secondary +
Labor force status
In labor force
Full-time student
Not working & not seeking
Locality type
Urban
Rural
Camp
Region
West Bank
Gaza Strip
Decision-making power
Low to none
Mid to high

Variable

Abused physically

Table 2. Unadjusted Results of Physical and Psychological Abuse.

< 0.001

0.861

0.056

0.795

< 0.001
0.223

p*

154
265

252
101
65
0.570
290
129

92
196
130

140
278

379
39
0.732
182
236

Yes

68.4
48.6

57.5
48.5

56.9
51.0
51.2

53.8
61.3
46.8

48.6
57.8

45.2
54.1

56.1
42.4

71
280

214
129

191
97
62

76
124
148

148
203

150
200

297
53

0.95

No

31.6
51.4

51.5
48.5

43.1
49.0
48.8

46.2
38.8
53.2

51.4
42.2

45.2
45.9

43.9
57.6

Abused psychologically

0.849

0.013

0.002

0.279

0.017

< 0.001

< 0.001
0.013

p*

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Assaf and Chaban

Table 3. Logistic Regression of Physical and Psychological Abuse.
Abused
physically
Variable
Age
(continuous)
Relation to head
Daughter
Other relation (ref.)
Refugee status
Refugee
Nonrefugee (ref.)
Education level
Preparatory & less
Secondary + (ref.)
Labor force status
In labor force (ref.)
Full-time student
Not working & not seeking
Locality type
Urban (ref.)
Rural
Camp
Region
West Bank
Gaza Strip (ref.)
Decision-making power
Low to none
Mid to high (ref)

Abused
psychologically

OR [95% CI]

p value

OR [95% CI]

p value

0.9 [0.9, 1.0]

< 0.001

0.9 [0.9, 1.0]

< 0.001

0.9 [0.5, 1.6]

1.0

0.701

1.1 [0.7, 1.8]

1.0

0.743

1.0 [0.7, 1.4]

1.0

0.875

1.2 [0.8, 1.7]

1.0

0.367

1.3 [0.9, 1.9]

1.0

0.243

0.9 [0.6, 1.3]

1.0

0.553

1.0
0.9 [0.6, 1.5]
0.7 [0.4, 1.2]

0.807
0.152

1.0
0.9 [0.6, 1.4]
0.7 [0.4, 1.0]

0.724
0.097

1.0
1.1 [0.7, 1.6]
1.1 [0.6, 1.8]

0.765
0.797

1.0
0.7 [0.5, 1.1]
1.0 [0.6, 1.5]

0.101
0.882

1.2 [0.8, 1.8]

1.0

0.387

2.0 [1.4, 2.9]

1.0

< 0.001

2.5 [1.8, 3.6]

1.0

< 0.001

2.5 [1.8, 3.6]

1.0

< 0.001

Discussion
The results indicate that decision-making power within the household for single,
never-married Palestinian women is strongly associated with domestic violence providing a lower risk of being abused. This was also found in studies of married women
conducted in Antigua and Barbados, Uganda, and China (Handwerker, 1998; Kaye
et al., 2006; Tiwari et al., 2005), as well as within the Palestinian West Bank cities of
Hebron, Jenin, and Ramallah (Dhaher, Mikolajczyk, Maxwell, & Kramer, 2010).
The results also indicate that younger age and limited decision-making power are
significant predictors of both physical and psychological abuse of single, never-married Palestinian women; region was found to be significant for psychological abuse
alone. Younger age as a risk factor for abuse was found in studies conducted on married and unmarried women in Syria (Maziak & Asfar, 2003), young wives in the

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

Philippines (Hindin & Adair, 2002), and Arab Bedouin women under the age of 40
years living in Israel (Cwikel et al., 2003). However, an equal number of studies found
youth to be a protective factor within the household (Dalal, Rahman, & Jansson, 2009;
Klomegah, 2008; Mezey, Post, & Maxwell, 2002). This was also true in Egypt and
Jordan (Department of Statistics [Jordan] & Macro International, Inc., 2008; El-Zanaty
& Way, 2006.)
As for region as a predictor of abuse, no previous studies exist with a focus on the
OPT, and given the unique situation of the OPT it is difficult to compare this result to
other locations in the literature. The results indicate that single, never-married
Palestinian women are more prone to psychological abuse in the West Bank compared
to the Gaza Strip. Admittedly, this is an unexpected result given the hardships that the
Gaza Strip has undergone recently. However, it is important to note that the PCBS
survey was conducted in late 2005 and early 2006, just after the Israeli settler pullout
and just before the election of Hamas that resulted in an international financial boycott
and an Israeli-imposed siege on the over-burdened territory. Comparisons should be
done with future domestic violence surveys in order to measure the impact of region
on single, never-married Palestinian womens safety within the home.
There is no significant evidence that locality (urban, rural or refugee camp) protects
single, never-married Palestinian women from domestic violence. One previous study
in Kenya (Kimuna & Djamba, 2008) did not find any significance with locality as
well. This is in contrast to a number of studies that have indicated rural locality as a
significant predictor of abuse (El-Zanaty et al., 1996; Klomegah, 2008; Lawoko,
Dalal, Jiayou, & Jansson, 2007; Maziak & Asfar, 2003), rural areas and refugee camps
as less protective than urban areas (Haj-Yahia, 2000), and those that found urban areas
as a risk factor (Al-Nsour, Khawaja, & Khayyali, 2009; Hindin & Adair, 2002).
Contrary to the findings of other studies, increased education levels (Akyuz et al.,
2008; Anson & Sagy, 1995; Kimuna & Djamba, 2008; Klomegah, 2008; Koenig et al.,
2006; Maziak & Asfar, 2003; Mezey et al., 2002; Rammohan & Johar, 2009) and labor
force participation (Rammohan & Johar, 2009) were not found to be significant predictors of either physical or psychological abuse among single, never-married
Palestinian women. However, some variations do exist in the literature. An earlier
study on domestic violence in Palestinian households revealed that wives who did not
earn a salary or whose level of education was higher than that of their husband were at
greater risk of abuse (Haj-Yahia, 2000). A study of Bedouin Arab women in Israel
found an increased risk of abuse with higher education (Cwikel et al., 2003). In Kenya,
while higher education proved to be a protective factor, the combination of higher
education and employment actually increased a womans exposure to violence
(Lawoko et al., 2007). This study also revealed that a postsecondary education alone
was more protective.
Specific to Palestinian women, female educational attainment is already expected
within Palestinian society. Education may not function as a protective factor because
attending school is already expected of females and does not constitute an exceptional
achievement. In fact, a study on family roles in contemporary Palestinian society
revealed that education did not provide Palestinian women any greater freedoms

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Assaf and Chaban

outside the home; likewise, women working outside the home did not liberalize gender
roles and attitudes within the home (Huntington et al., 2001). In addition, increased
levels of education have not led to sufficient increases in economic and political participation for Palestinian women.
As for Palestinian womens labor force participation, the OPT has one of the lowest
rates in the Arab world (United Nations Development Programme, 2006). The types of
employment traditionally held by women, the majority of whom are concentrated in
agriculture and the service sector, often give little economic and psychological empowerment to women. If a woman ventures into another sector, the economic contribution
to her family, while helpful, may not necessarily give her power or improve her status
within the home as she may be viewed as stealing jobs from the males in her household. A similar finding was revealed in a cross-country study concerning attitudes
toward wife beating in Asia (Rani & Bonu, 2009).
Finally, while the findings show that the majority of the Palestinian women surveyed were daughters of the household head (88%), this relationship was not found
to be significantly associated with abuse of any type. As the majority of studies on
violence in the home concentrate on spousal abuse, few specifically measure other
relationships to household head. The literature measuring instances of violence
toward women in the household indicated that the relationship is commonly daughter
with father as abuser (Al-Ghanim, 2009; UNIFEM & the General Union of Women,
2006), sister with brother as abuser (Al-Ghanim, 2009; Almosaed, 2004; UNIFEM &
the General Union of Women, 2006), and daughter with mother as abuser (Al-Ghanim,
2009).
As previously discussed, the OPT is a unique locale to measure factors contributing to domestic violence against single, never-married women. This study has
revealed that higher age and greater decision-making power clearly influence
instances of abuse in the Palestinian household for single, never-married women.
Decision-making power within the household showed a decreased risk of abuse, but
it is still unclear how such power is gained. Cross-tabulations indicate that there are
significant associations with education and age; therefore, it would be interesting to
study the factors that cause single, never-married women to have high decisionmaking power within the household in order to further understand this strong association with domestic violence.

Limitations
Reporting is always a problem for any study involving domestic violence and the data
used in this article are no different. Reporting issues may also exist within the original
survey for the decision-making variables, since they are subjective and some women
may not want to admit that they have low decision-making power. It is unclear what
decisive decision-making power entails in the PCBS survey; detailed questions regarding decision-making power would have provided greater insight into single, nevermarried womens decision-making power in the household and its nuances. In addition,
the reliability and validity of this measure is unknown. Likewise, the responses and

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Violence Against Women 19(3)

efforts by single, never-married women to exercise decision-making power might be

viewed through a lens of gender-based oppression. As previously touched upon, the
OPT is a patriarchal setting. Within such a setting it is important to keep in mind that
patriarchal attitudes can and will limit womens opportunities, no matter how many
determinants or environmental factors are considered as serving to (dis)empower
women and girls.
Another limitation included restricted data on other forms of violence experienced
by single, never-married women. One form of violence relevant to the Palestinian
context, particularly against single younger women, includes so-called honor killings. As a contentious topic, it merits discussion due to the fear surrounding its possibility. Exact numbers documenting the phenomenon are difficult to find, but a human
rights organization in the Gaza Strip documented a total of 47 acknowledged murders
between 2003 and late 2009 in the territory alone (PHRMG, 2009) indicating the
extent of the violence. Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2005) has noted that the public disclosure
of sexual assault/abuse against a woman increases the likelihood of her murder in the
name of family honor.
Many womens and human rights activists see the conflict impacting rates of violence against Palestinian women and girls; however, data are still being collected and
analyzed to measure its impact. Recent research has noted violence in the public
sphere may result in increased violence within the home. Husbands directly exposed
to political violence are more likely to perpetrate acts of physical, sexual, and psychological violence against their spouses (Clark et al., 2010). Shalhoub-Kevorkians
ongoing research (2009) argues that conflict-affected spaces and militarization
increase the insecurity of Palestinian women and girls and promote violence against
them. Researchers have also noted that witnessing violent acts in the public sphere is
strongly associated with instances of domestic violence in the OPT (Al-Krenawi,
Graham, & Sehwail, 2007). Similar research revealed that Palestinian girls were more
likely to be exposed to higher levels of violence within the home than their male peers,
despite encountering the same levels of political violence in the public sphere (LevWiesel, Al-Krenawi, & Sehwail, 2007). Despite these recent studies, more long-term
research is necessary to confirm whether violence in the public sphere is concretely
linked to domestic violence in the Palestinian household.
The analysis may have also been limited by the availability of variables; for
instance, the income level and education levels of the family were not included.
Also, never-married women were not asked who the perpetrator of the abuse was in
the household. Although most of the sample found the victims to be daughters of
the household head, this does not necessarily mean that the abuser was the father;
abuse from a brother, mother, or other relative in the household may have been
perpetrated. The survey did not ask for the number of rooms or the number of members of the household from which a crowding index could be calculated; this information would have been a useful variable to include in the analysis. The order of
the single women compared to other possible siblings was also not measured in the
survey. Finally, the survey is a cross-sectional design and, therefore, one cannot
infer causality of abuse.

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Assaf and Chaban

Implications for the Future and Concluding Remarks

Since single, never-married Palestinian women are expected to live with their natal
families until they marry, it is important to understand the risks of abuse they may face
in the household. This study has found that age and decision-making power were significantly associated with physical and psychological abuse in the household. However,
it was not clear how single, never-married women gained decision-making power in
the household. Revealing this unknown factor will be key to learning how best to nurture an environment where single, never-married women are able to exercise decisionmaking power in the household and, thus, be protected from domestic violence. As this
article has discussed, worldwide there is a dearth of information on domestic violence
against single, unmarried women. Therefore, the first step in understanding the unique
needs and vulnerabilities of this population would be through further research, particularly qualitative research studies, with single, never-married women, examining their
decision-making power within the household.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Palestinian Womens Research and Documentation Center
- UNESCO for their encouragement during the research process and the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) for kindly providing the research data.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

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Author Biographies

Shireen Assaf is a PhD student at the University of Padova, Department of Statistical Sciences.
She was most recently the Research Coordinator for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Womens
Research and Documentation Center, a former UNESCO project office which was committed
to producing research on issues pertaining to Palestinian women. Previously, she worked in
several research areas while at the American University of Beirut, where she also obtained her
MS in Population Health. She has extensive experience working on womens issues in Lebanon,
Morocco, Palestine, and Yemen.
Stephanie Chaban is an independent consultant who has most recently worked with the
Ramallah office of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and
is co-author of the DCAF report, Palestinian Women and Security: Why Palestinian Women
and Girls Do Not Feel Secure. She has researched issues affecting the lives of Palestinian
women since 2006, particularly violence and insecurity, and has authored a number of reports
and articles on the status of Palestinian women. She has an MA in Womens Studies from San
Diego State University.

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