One in Four Men in Asia Admit Rape

About one in every four men from Asia report that they have forced their wife or girlfriend to have sex while one in every ten admit to having raped a woman who wasn't their partner. These shocking results are from a multi-country report aimed at understanding rape and partner violence in the continent.

The study included over 10,000 men below age 50 from six Asian countries. About half of the men who admitted rape (45 percent) also said that they had raped more than once.

The prevalence of rape wasn't same in all regions; Bougainville, Papua New Guinea had more men reporting that they had raped a non-partner woman. Even male rape was highest in this region when compared to other places in the study.

The reasons for rape ranged from sexual entitlement (73 percent), entertainment (59 percent) and nearly a third of 38 percent said that they did it to punish a woman. The study also found that men who were victims of childhood physical or sexual abuse were also more likely to commit rape. This study was led by Professor Rachel Jewkes of South Africa's Medical Research Council.

Violence against women prevalent in many parts of Asia

According to a related study article by Emma Fulu, of Partners for Prevention in Bangkok, Thailand, about 46 percent of all men in the study admitted that they had abused their partners (physically, sexually, emotionally or economically). The lowest prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) was reported from rural Bangladesh while the highest prevalence of IPV was in Papua New Guinea.

When researchers included economic and emotional abuse, IPV prevalence reached 39 percent in Sri Lanka, and 87 percent in Bougainville.

The highlands of Papua New Guinea are a dangerous place for women. Apart from domestic abuse, women are also the victims of abuse by men of rival tribes. Girls as young as seven years have been reported to be abused by men.

"Worldwide, there is very little data on men's reporting of IPV, so these new results are essential to help us understand the risk factors that result in these actions," Dr Fulu said in a news release. "Only when we have a better understanding of these factors can we start to develop effective interventions to stop men committing acts of violence against their partners."

About 15 to 71 percent women around the world report intimate partner violence, according to data from The World Health Organization. A related study on domestic abuse reported by the agency had found that women who are abused by their partners are "twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before."

Study results are published in the journal Lancet.