What is Violence Against Women?

Violence Against Women is, as the United Nations defines it:

“Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental 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 includes (but is not limited to):

1-    Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household,
dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence
related to exploitation.

2-    Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation
at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution;

3-    Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.

Source: http://web.abo.fi/instut/kvinnis/naislinja/UN%27s_definition.htm