When receiving reports from many press organizations about a case of a 27-year-old wife heavily beaten by a husband in Tay Ninh Province, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs on February 10 requested Tay Ninh Province Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to immediately verify the situation for proper punishment corresponding to the current law. Simultaneously, the local authorities were asked to offer suitable healthcare and protection to the poor victim.
Ms. Kim H., the mentioned wife, reported in front of the court that due to the loss in gambling, the husband usually beat her brutally. She tried to advise him to work harder and earn a living, but all were ignored. Now the best result for this unhappy family is a divorce to end many years of unreasonable endurance.
Similar to Ms. Kim H., Ms. Dinh Thi L. from Ninh Binh Province did try to stand a violent husband. This man, due to pressure in work, often abused and beat her with no reason. To make it worse, he was once drunk and beat her so hard that she had to be hospitalized for a whole week.
Besides these typical cases, which are somehow well-known in the media, there are still countless number of females in Vietnam who are now have to suffer serious domestic violence and in need of rescue.
Statistics have shown that the main reason leading to divorce is domestic violence, mostly toward females and children. However, because of the Vietnamese tradition, these victims normally try to stand it until there is no other way but to report to the authorities.
Legal experts in this field share that compromising is not a sensible way to address this problem.
Particularly, Ms. Tran Ngoc Nu, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Branch of the Bar Association – the HCMC Branch of the Association for Protection of Child’s Right, retold the story of a 16-year-old adolescence stabbing a person with a dagger tens of times, saying this was just the same as what his father used to behave at home with his mother. She also mentioned the case of a young boy beating a girl right in the schoolyard with no sense of guilt just because his father stated that a male has a right to beat a female.
Therefore, according to Ms. Nu, domestic violence obviously leads to physical harm, but more importantly, it causes mental sickness in certain victims or witnesses. She further explained that the thought of certain females trying to endure the situation for the sake of children is merely silly and even selfish. It is more logical to seek help from the Women’s Union in the local area since these people have more professional knowledge to deal with such cases.
One more effective method would be for state organizations and the local authorities to focus more on propaganda about current policies and laws regarding domestic violence as well as necessary actions when observing this or being its victim. It is high time to let the males know that being a husband or a father does not grant a right to beat other family members, and that domestic violence is illegal in Vietnam.
According to Article 42 in the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control issued in 2007, law breakers must be considered as administrative violator or serious criminal depending on the level of violence, and must financially compensate properly.
