The grim reality that women in Asia would have to face is that nearly a quater of men in the Asia-Pacific region have admitted to committing rape at least once in their life.
According to the UN-lead survey, 10% of men in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka have admitted to raping at least once a woman who was not their partner. The figure rose nearly 25% when rape of their partner was included.
The study collected data from more than 10,000 men and 3,000 women aged 18-49 between 2010 and 2013 in order to understand why men commit violence against women and what can be done to prevent it.
Almost 75% of the subjects who have committed the rape said they did so because they felt they were sexually entitled to do so, and some say they did it for, get this.. “entertainment”.
In the study, researchers had purposely avoided using words associated to the crime, like “violence” and “rape”. Instead, the subjects were asked questions like “Have you ever forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex?” and “Have you have ever had sex with a woman who was too drugged or drunk to indicate whether she wanted it?”.
Results show that the rate of rape crimes varied greatly from country to country. Bougainville in Papua New Guinea recorded 62% of the respondents admitted to committing rape. The lowest was in urban Bangladesh, where 9.5% of interviewees admitted rape. However, almost 70% of all the men surveyed reported suffering no legal consequences for their actions, with that figure as high as 96.5% in Sri Lanka.
Dr Emma Fulu of Partners for Prevention, considered the information collected as “unprecedented and ground-breaking”.
In order to reduce the number of rape crimes in the region, the normalization of violence against women needs to end; same goes with promoting notions of “manhood”. [Source]
You can download and share the full survey here.
