Understanding Islam — Page 138
ARE WOMEN VIOLENTLY OPPRESSED IN ISLAM? 136 or otherwise. Domestic violence will affect 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in their lifetimes in the UK. 14 The latter statistic is often ignored or neglected, since violence against women often has more serious consequences than violence against men; however, each of these can be as psychologically injurious as the other. In the UK currently, alcohol is one of the biggest contributory factors for domestic violence. Research has shown that it contributes directly to between 30-40% of all cases of domestic violence. ’ 15 The Institute of Alcohol Studies describes the relationship between alcohol and domestic violence in the following way: Research with police officers in the North East of England found some officers unable to remember the last time they went to a domestic incident where alcohol was not involved, with 93% of them regarding alcohol as having a ‘large impact’ on domestic violence. Cases involving severe violence are twice as likely as others to include alcohol, and other research found that the risk of rape was twice as high for attacks involving drinking offenders. 16