New Internet site to help abused women

Two out of five women in Switzerland suffer domestic abuse Keystone Archive

The Swiss association of women's shelters is hoping its new Internet site will provide battered women with better access to information about shelters.

Two out of five women in Switzerland suffer some kind of domestic abuse at the hands of their spouse – be it violent, sexual or psychological, according to the Swiss association of women’s shelters.

The association offers emergency refuge to hundreds of battered wives each year, and says far too many women never report the abuse because they do not know who or where to turn to.

It hopes its new Internet portal will change this and help women learn about the shelters located across the country.

Majority do not seek help

“We found that only 12 per cent of battered women go to an official service. Most don’t seek help and try to find a solution alone,” said Claire Magnin, director of a shelter in the city of Biel.

She believes the site will put an end to the suffering in silence.

“The website is a good way for especially young women to access our services. For example, there were three young girls who wanted to know something about our shelter for a friend of their’s,” Magnin said.

“When we asked how they obtained our number, they replied through the Internet.”

Physical abuse

The association says that violence against women exists in all social classes and according to their latest study, one in five women in Switzerland suffers physical abuse.

Some 812 women and 814 women sought refuge in one of their 29 shelters in 2000.

The Federal Office for Statistics registered 5,000 cases of bodily harm to women last year, said Daniel Fink, head of the law and justice division.

He explained that it was impossible to know exactly how many cases of domestic violence there were. “A revision of police statistics in progress, but we’re only set to see some results after the next two or three years,” he said.

by Samantha Tonkin and Ramsey Zarifeh