24/03/2026
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3089428/
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PMCID: PMC3089428 PMID: 21573146
Abstract
Background:
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important public health issue with severe adverse consequences. Population-based data on IPV from Muslim societies are scarce, and Pakistan is no exception. This study was conducted among women residing in urban Karachi, to estimate the prevalence and frequency of different forms of IPV and their associations with sociodemographic factors.
Methods:
This cross-sectional community-based study was conducted using a structured questionnaire developed by the World Health Organisation for research on violence. Community midwives conducted face-to-face interviews with 759 married women aged 25–60 years.
Results:
Self-reported past-year and lifetime prevalence of physical violence was 56.3 and 57.6%, respectively; the corresponding figures for sexual violence were 53.4% and 54.5%, and for psychological abuse were 81.8% and 83.6%. Violent incidents were mostly reported to have occurred on more than three occasions during the lifetime. Risk factors for physical violence related mainly to the husband, his low educational attainment, unskilled worker status, and five or more family members living in one household. For sexual violence, the risk factors were the respondent’s low educational attainment, low socioeconomic status of the family, and five or more family members in one household.
Most Pakistani women are ignorant of the fact that violence is a crime, and those who do report violence fear punitive action from the husband’s family and/or losing their children, and few women of middle and lower class backgrounds can survive independently.10 Moreover, social norms strongly discourage women from living on their own, especially young women.
