Sexual Violence in Family: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate qualitatively the marital sexual violences against women in families. Qualitative content analysis method has been used for data analysis. This study was conducted in Urmia, and 30 violence victim women were deeply interviewed. The results indicate that victim women consider various types of experienced sexual relations, including sexual intercourse during menstruation, anal sex, excessive duration of sex regardless of women’s desire, and lack of emotional preparation at the beginning of sexual intercourse, as sexual violence. From women’s point of view, these types of violence are caused by social class distances, unemployment, religious justifications, seeing pornographic films, patriarchal thought, and considering women as men’s property. In their view, the consequences include neurological disorders, constant misbehavior with children, hatred of husbands, tendency to divorce, hatred of men in general, and betrayal.