While domestic abuse of women by their husbands is a commonly documented social problem, a study revealed that 57 percent of married men say they themselves have been subject to “revenge violence” on the part of their wives' brothers. The study, which was released last week by the Roy'ah Center for Social Studies and covered almost all regions of the Kingdom, showed that most male spouses subject to attacks from brothers-in-law were aged between 20 and 29. A further 33 percent of married males questioned revealed that they had been subject to violence from their offspring, with most of those expressing such a complaint were between ages 45 and 49 years. According to the study, the attacks were most often prompted by aggression towards women on the part of their husbands who sought to “prove their manhood” through maltreatment of their spouses. Sons and daughters in teenage years or beyond were said to side with their mothers and interject to prevent the father committing further acts of aggression against their mother. The Roy'ah Center survey also said that 10 percent of 50 to 59-year-olds questioned said they had been the target of “verbal and economic abuse” from their offspring who sought to take possession of their property and belongings and persuade fathers to move into homes for the elderly. The most common forms of abuse cited by the study were physical violence, which came top of the list and included causing injury and bruising, followed by verbal abuse, and in third place “economic abuse” seen in being expelled from the home and assuming ownership of property. The study noted that husbands targeted in such fashions rarely sought help from any quarter for fear of counter-complaints from their wives. Husbands more advanced in age, the study said, were more likely to seek the help of relatives, but as a general rule husbands of any age viewed turning to authorities as a rather “unmanly” course of conduct. Researchers at the Roy'ah Center for Social Studies said that most victims of violence interviewed during the study said that the mental anguish caused by domestic violence was considerably greater than the physical damage done.
