3 Dec 2014

Attitude change needed to combat gender violence

1:34 pm on 3 December 2014

A professor at the Fiji National University says something must be done about the high rates of violence against women.

A study by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre showed 64% of Fiji women reported they were assaulted during a relationship.

The Dean of Fiji National University College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Professor Ian Rouse, says based on the surveys, about 3,000 pregnant women are assaulted each year.

A United Nations campaign against gender-based violence is underway, and Professor Rouse says the message must get through to young men.

"I just personally cannot accept that there's any creed, or culture or religion which would accept that half the population are inferior, namely women, and we just have to challenge that. What we need to do is get in front of young boys, or young men, we've got to somehow change the generation, change the attitude."

Professor Rouse says an assault on a pregnant woman means there are two assaults in one.

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