"I Felt I Was Screaming Under the Water": Domestic Violence Victims' Experiences in Iran's Police Departments and Criminal Courts.

Babakhani, Atieh; Miller, Susan L.

This exploratory study, the first attempt at capturing the experiences of victims of DV with the criminal justice system in Iran, explores their plight in the absence of legislation that defines and criminalizes DV. Drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with Iranian women who turned to police departments and courts, we demonstrate the flaws inherent in Iran's judiciary and law enforcement organizations, suggesting they reinforce the integrity of the family as a patriarchal unit through readings of religious commands, stabilize the boundary between public and private, and dissuade women from claiming their rights. We provide suggestions for future research for reform, given the growing influence of feminist movements toward gender equality.

IRAN; RESEARCH; RESEARCH methodology; GROUNDED theory; DOMESTIC violence; INTERVIEWING; SEX distribution; CONCEPTUAL structures; COURTS; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; VICTIMS; DATA analysis software; STATISTICAL sampling; AGGRESSION (Psychology); THEMATIC analysis; CRIMINAL justice system; POLICE; GENDER inequality

Violence Against Women, 2022, Vol 28, Issue 10, p2398

1077-8012

Academic Journal

10.1177/10778012211032703