Domestic violence from men's perspectives how social norms shape the masculinity power of men in Myanmar

Abstract

Human rights violation is a huge issue in Myanmar, a country which started to transform to democracy in late 2015. One of many issues that have been drawing a great amount of attention from local NGOs is women's right. In this paper, the researcher worked on the domestic violence issues from the male perpetrators' perspective which is not much discussed in Myanmar society. As a result, information on the issue is very limited because incidents are often unreported. The researcher used the qualitative method to attempt to explore the aspects of men and to see how social norms shape the masculinity power of men in Myanmar society and the main causes of domestic violence in cases of husband against wife. The patriarchal society of Myanmar created strong traditional, social and cultural norms which have shaped women's and men's lives. As a result, gender discrimination has been proved the root cause of the gender-based violence in Myanmar. There are three main research questions for this research: (1) how do social norms in terms of masculinity affect men's practice of power (2) what are the main factors that make men become perpetrators and (3) what are the main causes of domestic violence in cases of husband against wife. After conducting twenty assessments to get these six respondents, the researcher had done six in-depth interviews with perpetrators who were not identified as a perpetrator by court in Network Activities Group (NAG - a non-government organization established in 2008 in Myanmar) project area which is in Yangon Division where many social issues occurred. The study found out five main factors that answered the research questions: (1) childhood and families, (2) relationship with parents and how they have learned from their parents, (3) men's perceptions of masculinities, power, and social norms, (4) main causes of domestic violence in cases of husband against wife, and (5) men's sense of human rights especially for women's human rights. Thus, it proved that in order to eliminate domestic violence and women's right violation in Myanmar, it is important to focus on men's perceptions and understanding.