Six out of ten women in Jordan are abused, with one in four physically abused, a poll showed Monday.
Almost half of the women surveyed believed that physical violence is acceptable under certain conditions, said the poll.
The poll, conducted by the Jordan Center for Social Research, is about violence towards women in the kingdom, helping lift the veil slightly off the Arabian women.
According to the survey, 45.5 percent of abuse incidents are carried out by husbands, while incidents by fathers and brothers account for 22.7 and 15.7 percent respectively.
The poll, financed by Freedom House, also found out that only 9 percent of abused women seek professional help because they fear losing their family or their children.
Mousa Shteiwi, director of the Center and sociology professor at Jordan University, said the poll clearly showed that women are not being seen by the state or society as individuals who have the right to be independent or free.
"The husband in a marriage or the father in a family is still the head of the family and it is accepted for him to discipline his wife or daughter or sister within that role," Shteiwi said.
However, a positive news from the poll showed that women no longer excuse forceful rebuke for failing to fulfill their traditional duties such as getting meals ready and looking after children.
This, Shteiwi says, clearly indicated a noteworthy improvement from earlier studies, which showed that women expected disciplinary action for infractions of their traditional roles towards their husbands.