Women's Lived Experience of Domestic Violence (Case Study: Women Referred to Divorce Reduction Unit of Isfahan Social Emergency Center)

Violence in family or domestic violence is a kind of violence that takes place in a private environment and it generally happens among people who are linked together because of blood relation or legal relation. The objectives of this study are to achieve the meaning of violent behavior among women, the typology of domestic violence and womenchr('39')s experiences of domestic violence. The research tried to identify women’s lived experiences from domestic violence by phenomenological methodology. Research field includes divorce reduction unit of social emergency center in Esfahan city. Deep interviews were conducted by using purposive sampling by 18 women and data analysis were conducted by using a Colizzis seven-step method. In addition to providing the exact typology of the violence women have experienced, the results also show that how each of these women defines violence, according to the type of the violence that has been used against them. They also noted why their spouses used violence against them. In this regard, women refer to interferences of husband’s family, husband’s personal and moral characteristics, lack of sufficient knowledge about one another, and patriarchal thoughts and ideas. Also, those women who consider themselves too weak to fight back, passively compromise and tolerate the violent life, hide the violence, and finally defend themselves while being beaten. On the other hand, those women who have the power to fight back, actively pursue measures to recover the situation, disobey husband’s demands, revile against their husband’s verbal violence, and finally if the mentioned proceedings fail, they go into a sulk and leave their homes.