A total of 13 percent of children in Jordan have been subjected to severe physical punishment, according to The Association of the Jordanian Women's Solidarity Institute, Tadamon.

The Population and Family Health Survey 2017-2018 implemented by the Department of Statistics (DoS) showed that 81 percent of children in Jordan, aged one-14 years old, were subjected to violent methods of discipline during the month preceding the survey, and that 15 percent of children were subjected to non-violent methods of discipline.

Additionally, 76 percent of children were exposed to several forms of psychological punishment, 59 percent were subjected to physical punishment, and 13 percent were subjected to severe physical punishment.

While the manner in which parents and caregivers discipline children has had long-term consequences on their physical and psychological development, well-being, and general condition, the survey showed that nonviolent discipline included one or more of the following:

• Withdrawal of privileges or depriving the child of something they enjoy or not letting the child leave the house
• Explaining to the child that their behavior was wrong, and giving the child a task to do.

Psychological punishment included one or both of the following:

• Yelling at the child or raising one's voice at them
• Calling them names such as stupid, lazy, or any other characteristic.

Physical punishment included one or more of the following:

• Shaking the child, slapping or hitting the child on the back with the hand
• Hitting the child on the back or any other part of the body using a belt, hairbrush, stick, or any other hard, slanting object
• Hitting the child on the hand or arm or leg.

Severe physical punishment included one or both of the following:

• Hitting or slapping the child in the face, head or ears
• Repeatedly beating the child in a harsh manner.

Ironically, the survey showed that the percentage of those who believe that the use of physical punishment is necessary in order to properly raise, discipline or educate a child was only 14 percent, and most of the respondents were female (4,969 females versus 434 males).

Tadamon added that this result confirms that physical punishment of children, including severe ones, is mostly committed by males, and females tend to use non-violent methods of discipline.

Tadamon also indicated that Jordan, from the beginning of 2021 until June 17, 2021, witnessed nine domestic murders, killing 10 females.

Among them, a daughter and a wife survived stabbing attacks in two separate incidents by the father and husband, according to different media sources.

Jan. 2021, a husband shot his wife (53 years) and his son (18 years) by on Jan. 18 in the Russaifa area, and on Jan. 25, a young man confessed to killing his sister (twenties) by beating to death in the Marka area in the capital Amman.

March 2021, specifically on March 6, a father killed his two daughters (two and three years old) with a sharp tool in southern Badia, and on International Women's Day, (March 8, 2021), a man killed his ex-wife by stabbing her inside the Sharia Court of Rusaifa.

March 10, a mother (sixties) was stabbed to death by her son in Amman, and on March 11, 2021 a girl (twenties) was stabbed to death by her mother in Mafraq.

A girl (twenty-year-old) was stabbed by her father in the Sweileh area in the capital, Amman, on March 18, 2021. She survived.

April 29, 2021, a wife was stabbed to death by her husband's brother in the Russaifa area in Zarqa.

May 2021, a son in his forties stabbed his elderly mother to death in the Hussein camp area in the capital, Amman.

At the end of May, a wife (in her thirties) was stabbed several times by her husband, while the sons stabbed their father before he escaped.

On June 16, 2021, a 21-year-old university girl was killed by her father as a result of his severe beating with an electric wire for low grades at university.

Notably, Tadamon recorded 21 domestic murders against women and girls in 2019 and 20 in 2020.

The murders of women constitute the most serious and last link in a series of continuous cycles of violence against them, and these crimes are an inevitable result of the consequences and effects of the various forms of violence practiced against them, according to Tadamon.