Family Ambiguity and Domestic Violence in Asia

Book excerpt: Domestic violence in Asia is explored in this analysis through questions of family ambiguity and the relationship between concept, law, and strategy. Comparative experiences in the Asian context enable an examination of the effectiveness of family regulations and laws in diverse national, cultural, and religious settings. Key questions relate to the limits and relevance of the human rights discourse in resolving family conflicts; the extent to which power and control in intimate relationships can actually be regulated by a set of inanimate, homogeneous, and uniform policies and legislations; and how the state relates to the family as an ambiguous unit given state rules of governance that perpetuate unequal gender relations. Carefully considering the many components of domestic violence--such as state intervention versus the private domain and differences in legislation across Asia--the book offers new theoretical insights to the conceptualization of the family, culture, and law, and provides reasoned new perspectives on the effectiveness or inadequacy of present policies and enforcement strategies against domestic violence in Asia.