Some 36% of women in South Africa − an estimated 7.8 million across the country – have experienced physical or sexual abuse at some point in their lives, according to survey responses in a new study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
In the country’s first national gender-based violence prevalence study, the HSRC surveyed 10 012 people from around the country, 5 603 women and 4 409 men.
Almost 24% of respondents in the survey − which would equate to an estimated 3.4 million in the general population – said they were victims of an intimate partner.
News24 reports that the study also found that almost 70% of participating men who had been in a relationship agreed that a woman should obey her husband, while almost 23% held that a woman could not refuse to have sex with him.
[Image: Joel Muniz on Unsplash]