SURVEYS FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE world have shown that a woman is more likely to be injured, raped or killed by an intimate partner than by any other person. There are a myriad of sub tle but debilitating forms of violence directed towards women: dowry-related or son preference that leads to abortion of female fetuses, female infanticide and bride-burning homicides. The list also includes misde meanours such as rape, sexual abuse, forced prostitu tion, female circumcision or genital mutilation.1, 2 Al though males are also abused by their female partners and intimate partner violence is not exclusively a male domain,3 for the present purpose, this paper will focus on violence directed at women; that is, women assault ed or harmed physically, psychologically or emotionally by their partner. The rationale for focusing on women is based on the widely established opinion that a female is more likely than the male to bear the adverse effect of intimate partner violence. The saying, ''A hungry man is a hungry man, but a hungry women is a hungry world", may be relevant a metaphor in coming to grips with the ill effects of abused women.