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Previous studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Bangladesh rarely focused on the effectiveness of primary prevention strategies like legal remedies. There is also a lack of studies on the issues among the ethnic minority communities in the country. This study examines the awareness of laws on IPV (such as recognizing the abusive acts and knowing the sanctions) among the ethnic Garo and Santal and mainstream Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh. The study randomly included 1929 married women and men from 24 villages. It appeared that the respondents were not adequately aware of the relevant legal provisions. There were also gender and ethnic differences in the issues. On average, the respondents maintained a low score on recognizing abusive acts. The awareness was further lower among the women compared to the men. In addition, multivariate analysis indicated that the Bengali women had relatively a better understanding of the issues than the Garo and Santal women. However, the Garo men showed poorer awareness of recognizing the abusive acts than the Bengali and Santal men. On the other hand, the respondents also maintained a very insufficient knowledge of the sanctions against such abusive acts, whereas women also showed a lower awareness compared to their male counterparts. Data further revealed that the Santal women had a more inadequate understanding of the issues than the Bengali and Garo women. However, the Garo men had more awareness of the sanctions than the Bengali and Santal men. The study reveals that people are unfamiliar with the laws governing IPV. It shows that understanding legal issues is another field of gender and ethnic inequality in the country. We suggest that there should be intervention to make aware the citizen, mainly women of all ethnicities, to ensure the efficacy of the laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender ideology has widely been discussed in the explanation of wife abuse. However, how men's gender ideology influences wife abuse is quite overlooked in Bangladeshi context. This study examined how various types of gender ideology among men are associated with wife abuse in Bangladesh. It included 342 married men randomly selected from 5 villages. Negative binomial regression was employed to predict the incidence‐rate ratio of wife abuse. Of the sample, 55.0% maintained traditional, 31.3% transitional, and 13.7% liberal gender ideologies. On average, the men perpetrated 6.10 abusive acts in a year. Data showed that the rates of overall wife abuse among liberal men were 41% and 48% lower than the traditional and transitional men, respectively. Liberal men also perpetrated less emotional, physical, and sexual abuses than both traditional and transitional men. The study shows that the promotion of liberal gender ideology among men is important for preventing wife abuse. Men should be targeted by diverse violence prevention interventions for enhancing gender equality attitudes. Though the study has provided novel findings in a Bangladeshi context, it was entirely based on male data. Future studies should examine both men's and women's views on the issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on marital violence (MV) in Bangladesh have primarily focused on the women of the mainstream Bengali people, although half of the population is men, and there are also ethnic minority communities with diverse gender constructions. The current study examined the gender differences in MV among the matrilineal ethnic minority Garo, patrilineal ethnic minority Santal, and the patrilineal mainstream Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh. Adopting a cross-sectional design, we randomly included 1,929 currently married men and women from 24 villages. We used cross-tabulations as well as multivariate logistic regressions to estimate the ethnic and gender differences in MV. Data revealed that women were widely exposed to different types of MV, while only a few men experienced such abuses. It showed that 95.6% of the women experienced emotional abuse, 63.5% physical abuse, 71.4% sexual abuse, and 50.6% poly-victimization, whereas these rates were quite low among the men (emotional = 9.7%, physical = 0.7%, sexual = 0.1%). No men reported poly-victimization. The odds ratio (OR) for emotional, physical, and sexual MV were respectively, 184.44 (95% CI = 93.65−363.24, p<0.001), 449.23 (95% CI = 181.59−1111.35, p<0.001), and 2789.71(95% CI = 381.36−20407.08, p<0.001) for women compared to men. Data further revealed that matrilineal Garo women experienced less MV (emotional = 90.7%, physical = 53.4%, sexual = 64.0%, poly = 38.8%) than the patrilineal Santal (emotional = 99.4%, physical = 67.3%, sexual = 71.3%, poly = 53.9%) and Bengali women (emotional = 96.6%, physical = 69.6%, sexual = 78.8%, poly = 58.9%). Multivariate regressions also showed that the Bengali society perpetrated more physical (OR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.27−2.85, p = 0.002) and sexual (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.34−3.10, p = 0.001) MV than the Garo society. It appears that MV is largely a gendered issue in the country. Though both women and men can be the victims of MV, the nature/extent of victimization noticeably differs according to the social organization. Matrilineal society appears to be less abusive than the patrilineal one. Interventions aimed to prevent domestic violence in rural Bangladesh should take these findings into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without taking masculine issues into account, women’s participation in development initiatives does not always guarantee their empowerment, health, and welfare in a male-dominated society. This study aimed to explore men’s perceptions of women’s participation in development (WPD) in rural Bangladesh. In adopting a qualitative approach, the study examined 48 purposively selected married and unmarried men aged 20–76 years in three northwest villages. Data collection was accomplished through four focus group discussions (FGDs) with 43 men clustered into four groups and through individual interviews with five other men. A qualitative content analysis of the data revealed an overall theme of “feeling challenged by fears and hopes,” indicating variations in men’s views on women’s participation in development initiatives as represented by three main categories: (a) fearing the loss of male authority, (b) recognizing women’s roles in enhancing family welfare, and (c) valuing women’s independence. In the context of dominant patriarchal traditions in Bangladesh, these findings provide new insight into dynamics and variations of men’s views, suggesting a need to better engage men during different stages of women-focused development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]