Ding Xiaolan and Wang Xin, two common housewives from different
coastal Chinese provinces, both killed their husbands on Nov. 6
after suffering 10 years of beatings and abuse and being unable to
endure any more.
Theirs are not isolated cases of victims of domestic violence
resorting to extreme means to stop abuse. In a provincial female
prison, over 100 of the 1,000 prisoners were found guilty of
killing their husbands, and many said they were driven to it by
abuse.
Domestic experts, knowing the elimination of domestic violence
is a long way off, began meditating on women's different choices
when encountering beatings or abuse.
According to a survey on how Chinese rural females deal with
wife beating, 50 percent go to relatives or village leaders for
mediation, 33 percent take revenge with violence, and only seven
percent go to law enforcement departments for assistance.
Experts point out that many Chinese, considering domestic
violence a "private" matter, prefer mediation as a mild way to
settle family conflicts.
But Chen Min, a lawyer with the Beijing Jinde Law Office, said
the facts proved the opposite was true, as females might expect
more severe violence after mediation.
?"Mediation usually aims to cool conflicts, reach
agreements and maintain marriages, but it never insists on
punishment of abusers or encourages victims to divorce, which traps
more women into the nightmare of domestic violence," Chen said.
?Though legal assistance is believed more powerful than
mediation, it still faces frustrations in practice.
?Jurists with the Law School of Beijing University say the
new Marriage Law, which clearly prohibits domestic violence,
doesn't specify related judicial procedures, which leaves too large
room for free judgment.
?"Sometimes, family violence does cause injuries, but the
severity hasn't come to the standards for conviction according to
China's Criminal Law," jurists say.
The experts also consider the judicial authorities fail to offer
effective measures to compel temporary separation between violence
victims and abusers, which discourages many women caught in
continuous abusive situations.
They also blame some local police stations for treating the
issue as a "trivial household matter", accusing them of shuffling
it through with words of persuasion and without verifying wives'
injuries or punishment on guilty husbands.
?Divorce cannot always help the abused women out, and has
become another factor driving them to violent resolutions.
In the above two cases, Ding and Wang both tried to divorce, but
incurred more atrocious beatings and husbands' threats of killing
all their families. They were forced to bear the abuse again and
again.
A survey among divorced women in Ma'anshan City, east China's
Anhui Province shows that 20 percent still suffer beating by their
ex-husbands.
"Domestic violence is not a private matter, but a public
menace," said Chen Mingxia, a professor with the law institute of
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
?According to the latest official survey, 16 percent of
Chinese women complain their spouses beat them, and 14.4 percent of
males admit they beat up their wives. Nearly one third of related
government officials regard domestic violence as the primary factor
threatening women's rights and interests.
Currently, women's federations at various levels have opened
6,181 hotlines and 8,958 special organizations in China to provide
consultation and legal aid for women's rights protection. The China
Law Society has established a nationwide network for fighting
domestic violence, and many provincial authorities have enacted
local regulations for preventing domestic violence.
(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2003)