Among the seventeen Global Sustainable Developmental Goals¹ from 2016-2020 is "gender equality" goal as well (sustainable development goals, n.d.). However, we could observe gender-based violence all over the world, especially among the so-called LAMIC (low and middle-income countries). The results drastically change from region to region, for example from 2% in Argentina to 90 % in Afganistan.¹ What factors may influence these inhumane attitudes? Results of different researches reveal some overlapping factors that could be considered as main predictors of justification of wife-beating. Among the most mentioned factors are the level of education, wealth of household and the place of residence (region). Study by Thach Duc Tran and others in 39 LAMI countries (except Madagascar) revealed that women as well as men from rural places with restricted education and low wealth status more tend to justify IPV (intimate partner violence). Also, the results of their study identified that marital status and age has significant influence on attitudes toward women beating. Younger respondents (under 25) in comparison to older ones are more likely to justify, meanwhile people who have never married are less likely to accept IPV.² But age might be misleading predictor as well, for example in countries like Ethiopia and Mali significant relationship was not found.³ In addition, it was shown that cultures of West and Central Africa and South Asia are more inclined to justify IPV than in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe.² Results of study conducted in 7 Sub-Saharan African Countries are alike with abovementioned ones according to which people of this region mainly consider discipline or punishment of women through beating as a norm. Moreover, in some cases we observe not only cultural but legal acceptance of it as well. For example, in Kenya law gives a husband the right to "chastise" wife. Also this study identify that household wealth and education are the strongest predictors (among other socio-demographic factors) of attitudes toward wife-beating in Benin, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mali, as it was in previous study. Marital status was also taken into consideration but in addition these authors highlighted the influence of monogamous and polygamous relationship(they accept more) as well.² In addition to abovementioned factors (wealth, marital status, age, region, education) that might have an impact on attitudes, researchers includes into their model other factors as well. One of them is "ambiguous" factor religion. Why ambiguous? Because some researchers consider it as an important predictor and find st. significant results, for ex. in Bangladesh,⁴ meanwhile others do not.² In my research I didn’t include this factor, because the vast majority of respondents were Muslim and representatives of other religions were too few. Taking into consideration that azerbaijan culture is close to turkish , several articles of the turkish context were reviewed as well. Balci Y⁵ in his research made comprehensive analysis of physical violence and took into consideration along with demographic characteristics such factors as: violence against children by the husbands, the husbands' manner at home.⁵ Results of study that were conducted among men from Bursa showed that 17.9 % of them among 1150 thought that they have the right to beat their spouses. Among predictors of such attitudes were number of children, childhood beating, and alcohol intake and as it was mentioned in previous studies - womens' low education.⁶ In another study, which respondents were turkish medical students, were used expanded questionnaire to identify results of 6 independents variables. Among them were DV such as: wives benefit from beating and wife is responsible for her beating. Surprisingly, 5.3% of the students showed agreement on statement " wives try to get their husbands to beat them in order to get sympathy from others".⁷ Also, male students were more likely to justify wife beating than female students and this tendency based on gender is widely spread, however research in Vietnam revealed that women are more likely to justify wife beating and even they find good reason for hitting.⁸ Distinction of their study among other features was that they include in model childhood experiences (whether the participant was beaten in childhood or not) as well. The similar path was followed in another study in Tehran conducted by Pournaghash-Tehrani,⁹ who take into consideration adverse childhood experiences as well.⁹ The similar result were gained in Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, according to results of which previous experience of abuse has influence on justification of wife beating.¹⁰

Purpose of research

Gender equality is of the global goals that we are intended to reach as global citizens. However, results of GII (gender inequality index) prove that we have a long path to go. One of the social problems that we face within our country is gender biased violence. And of the "expression" of it is physical abuse, in our case - wife-beating. Our purpose was to learn attitudes of women toward wife beating and the factors that may have influence on it. As main independent variable we chose "frequency of reading". Meanwhile control variables are: age, region, marital status, education in single years, partners education in single years, wealth index, employment, whether she earns more. Hence, our hypotheses are: Frequency of reading has an influence on women attitudes on wife beating. Frequency of reading one of the evidences of women need in self-actualization. The more she reads, the more she is being involve in the ambiance of universal human values and moreover she is getting more information (even in non-prescriptive way) about her rights which might led to attitudes against of intimate partner violence.

1. Women in younger age are more likely to justify women beating rather than older women.

Results of some different studies prove that there is st. significant relationship between the abovementioned two factors.²

2. Women from rural areas are more likely to justify women beating rather than women from urban areas.
3. Women's justification of wife beating will differ depending on her marital status. Researches revealed that people who have never married are less likely to accept IPV.²
4. The more education in single years has women the less she will justify wife beating. Most of the researchers consider education as one of the strongest predictors of attitudes toward wife beating.^2,3,6
5. The higher wealth index of household the fewer women will justify wife-beating. Along with education, wealth index another important predictor of attitudes on IPV.^2,3,6
6. The more education in single years have husband of respondent the less women will justify wife beating. According to readings, one of the factors that might influence attitudes is self-experience of abuse.^9,10

I assume that husband with higher education is less likely to physically abuse, so she wouldn’t experience IPV and it will be reflected at her attitudes.

7. Women who work are less likely to justify wife beating than those who don’t work.
8. Women who earn more are less likely to justify wife beating than those who don’t.

I assume that in that case traditional patriarchy system will be destroyed in their family which will influence their attitudes as well.

Study population. For this research secondary data on Azerbaijan demographic and health survey was used which was retrieved from the official website. 13.565 women from 9 regions of Azerbaijan whose age ranges from 16 to 49. Random sampling was used.

For measuring variables of our conceptual framework were used questionnaires. For DV, questionnaire consisted of 5 questions which are the following: Do women justify wife beating: if the wife burns the food, argues with him, goes out without telling him, neglects the children, refuses sexual relations ? For the rest 8 IV also questionnaires were used (structured study-specific questions).
Analysis: Attitudes toward wife beating were coded in a following way: in order to define whether respondent justifies wife beating or not I have created dummy variable.
Then descriptive statistics was done for each variable. Secondly, taking into consideration that our dependent variable is categorical and independent variables include categorical and continuous variables as well bivariate logistic regression and chi2 were run. And at the end multivariate logistic regression was used.

All variables showed statistically significant results on sktest (p=.00), hence there is a statistically significant lack of normality. In our case for all variables skewness and kurtosis results are significant. It is quite interesting that 7901 (58,25 %) women out of 13.565 justified at least one question out of 5 questions on women beating (Figure 1). In the following presented bar chart are presented women attitudes toward wife beating among 9 regions,11 where 0=no, 1=yes (Figure 2) (Table 1). As seen from the table 3, there are st. significant results on attitudes toward wife beating depending on regions. We may clearly notice from bar chart as well, that only in 3 regions - Baku, Absheron and Guba Khacmaz women less likely to justify women beating, meanwhile in the rest 6 regions they likely to accept IPV.

Figure 1 Descriptive statistics.

Figure 2 Attitudes by region.

Results of bivariate logistic regression are presented in Table 2.

As we can see, except two IV (age and whether wife earns more) the rest 6 IV have st. significant influence on DV - attitudes toward beating. Then data were examined via multivariate analysis by creating logistic regression model. Results are presented in the following Table 3. The table 6 includes only st. significant results. Based on results we may say that, region itself (according to bivariate analysis) has significant influence on attitudes, meanwhile multivariate log. Regression helped us to identify more precisely which regions might predict women's justification of IPV. So, women from Absheron would be for 54% less likely justify wife beating. Meanwhile probability of approving of wife beating of women from Aran and Daglik Shirvan regions are 83% and 123% respectively. Hence, our 2nd hypothesis " Women from rural areas are more likely to justify women beating rather than women from urban areas" are partially proved. Another interesting fact that working status of women itself doesn’t play significant role in her attitudes, meanwhile if she works and earns more her answers would for 21% be less likely to justify IPV. So, our 7th hypotheses is falsified meanwhile 8th " Women who earn more are less likely to justify wife beating than those who don’t" is confirmed. The amount of years women spent on education predicts her attitudes toward wife beating; more precisely for every1 additional year spent on education she would for 13% less likely to justify IPV. Hence, our 4th hypothesis "the more education in single year’s women have the less she will justify wife beating" is confirmed. However, we didn’t find any influence of husband’s education on women's beliefs, so we reject hypotheses № 6. Wealth index of household has little influence on attitudes, but still has (p=.00). For every additional unit of wealth index likelihood of women's approval of wife beating decreases for 1%. Hence, we can say that hypotheses № 5 is confirmed. Age and marital status in our context according to the results of m. logistic regression don’t influence women's beliefs on wife beating. So, we reject hypotheses № 1 & 3. And our main hypotheses, according to which “Frequency of reading has an influence on women attitudes on wife beating" is confirmed, because results of regression revealed that for 1 change in frequency of reading (from 0=not at all .. 3=almost every day) we expect that women would be less likely for 23% to justify wife beating (p=.00).

Analyses of data from Azerbaijan demographic and health survey, 2006 revealed that Azerbaijani women who are frequently reading less likely to justify wife beating. Taking into consideration dependent variables as well we can say that women from Absheron., with higher level (i.e. single years of edu) of education., who earns more than her husband., with higher wealth index of household less likely to approve IPV. The picture that we observe quite dramatic. Because descriptive analysis showed that 7901 (58,25 %) women out of 13.565 justified at least once physical abuse toward women. And we can observe that one of the main predictors of this beliefs is education (single years spent on education, frequency of reading).^12,13

None.

Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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