One of my first court cases as a barrister involved trying to get a protection order for a Fiji woman who had tried to leave her abusive husband more than 10 times. She had gone back each time because she had no right to matrimonial property, her parents told her she was besmirching her family’s honour, and her husband would not share custody of their children. Each time she was beaten she stayed away from work whilst her wounds healed, meaning lost wages, and medical expenses on top of legal costs. She felt humiliated. She is, unfortunately, far from being alone. World Health Organization research from 2013 said more than 30% of women who had ever had a partner had suffered physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence with our region at 37%. In this part of the world, the spotlight has been on India with atrocities reported in the global media. In 2014 the BBC reported that every 5 minutes an Indian woman reports domestic violence... — blogs.adb.org/blog