FOREWORD

Dr Hean Sokhom and his research team have done a careful job of sifting through the clippings collected by PADV of articles relating to domestic violence in Cambodia. The result should raise awareness in several ways. First, to see the many forms of violence in the family concentrated in one volume should alert the reader to the severity of the problem of domestic violence in Cambodian society. Second, to see how domestic violence is treated in the press should alert the reader to the potential influence journalists have over the presentation of sensitive social issues to the public. Third, to see how the author organizes his presentation of this domestic violence material should alert the reader to the importance of understanding the cultural and psychological context of domestic violence for effective educational and advocacy efforts.

The CAS would like to express its appreciation to the PADV Executive Director and her staff for their cooperation during this research. We would give special thanks to Ms Sue Watmough, PADV Technical Adviser, for her insightful advice and guidance during the research and especially during the writing of the report. Thanks also to Mr. Graham Lang, of VSO in Phnom Penh for his editorial assistance.

William Collins, Ph.D.

Acting President, CAS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................................ 3

A. Project Against Domestic Violence (PADV)................................................................................... 3

B. Previous Research on Domestic Violence in Cambodia......................................................... 4

C. Background of Research on Domestic Violence Through Cambodian Newspapers 5

Chapter 1. KINDS OF VIOLENCE PORTRAYED.............................................................................................. 7

A. The Term "Domestic Violence".............................................................................................................. 7

B. Location of Domestic Violence cases.............................................................................................. 8

C. Violence in Different Relationships.................................................................................................. 9

1. Women against Men..................................................................................................................................... 10

2. Men against Women..................................................................................................................................... 12

3. Women against Women................................................................................................................................ 18

4. Adults against children............................................................................................................................... 19

5. Children against adult................................................................................................................................ 22

D. Suicide Cases.................................................................................................................................................. 25

1. Cases of Husbands or Wives Committing Suicide................................................................................... 25

2. Cases of Other Family Members Committing Suicide............................................................................ 26

E. Interventions................................................................................................................................................. 28

1. Police.............................................................................................................................................................. 28

2. Neighbors....................................................................................................................................................... 29

3. Relatives......................................................................................................................................................... 29

4. Husband or Wife............................................................................................................................................ 29

F. Effects of Domestic Violence on Children.................................................................................. 30

Chapter 2. PRESENTATION OF VIOLENCE IN NEWSPAPERS................................................................ 32

A. Photos................................................................................................................................................................ 32

B. Article Titles................................................................................................................................................. 32

C. Photo Titles.................................................................................................................................................... 33

D. Article Structure...................................................................................................................................... 34

E. Reporters' Comments................................................................................................................................ 35

1. Condemnation of domestic violence.......................................................................................................... 35

2. Conclusions of reporters on the reasons for violence............................................................................ 38

3. Educational role of reporters..................................................................................................................... 38

4. Reporters' suggestions to authorities....................................................................................................... 39

F. Language Used to Describe Domestic Violence......................................................................... 40

G. Following -up Cases of Domestic Violence................................................................................ 41

H. Variation in Domestic Violence Coverage in the Newspapers....................................... 42

CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................................. 44

RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................................................... 47

ANNEX A: TABLES..................................................................................................................................................... 50

aNNEX b: ARTICLE titles.................................................................................................................................... 53

REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................................ 62

INTRODUCTION

Domestic violence is a serious problem, which occurs in many countries. In recent years, domestic violence or family violence has been recognized as a serious problem globally[1] and one which not only has many harmful effects on family members but is also "expensive for women, the community and the nation"[2]. The only real common denominator is that the vast majority of its victims are women[3].

Cambodia has been dominated by war for more than two decades, and its regimes have changed many times. This has resulted in an unstable social structure, economic slowdown and shortcomings in the field of education. These are factors adversely affecting the society. As Zimmerman says: "the Khmer Rouge experience, decades of war, pervasive violence, the availability of weapons and inadequate dispute resolution mechanisms appear to greatly increase the severity of the violence"[4]. In Cambodia, people are not really interested in this problem because they always think that “plates in a basket will rattle”, meaning domestic conflicts happen inevitably. Many Cambodians think that domestic violence is normal.

Interest in women's issues in Cambodia just started a few years ago after the UN-sponsored general elections and the formation of a Secretariat for Women’s Affairs, which later became the Ministry for Women’s Affairs. And, after the elections, international and national non-governmental organizations have appeared, some of which focus on gender issues, for example Project Against Domestic Violence.

A. Project Against Domestic Violence (PADV)

PADV is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) which was established in early January, 1995 following a conference entitled “ Conference on Intra-Familial Violence”. PADV at present is the leading agency in Cambodia. It focuses on preventing and eliminating domestic violence by means of research, education, training and public awareness raising. Programs and activities of PADV are based on human rights principles in protecting individuals. Women and children have the same rights as everyone else, so there is an urgent need to assure those rights and to protect those women and children from violence in their households. In Cambodia, domestic violence is a problem that does not gain enough public attention. Consequently, PADV activities focus immediate attention on this problem.

PADV cooperates with government agencies like the Ministry of Women's Affairs and NGOs such as Women's Media Center (WMC) and Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP) and other organizations that provide shelters for victims. PADV also cooperates with other NGOs in order to provide training, local practical skill assistance as well as counseling for clients.

B. Previous Research on Domestic Violence in Cambodia

In 1994, PADV conducted an exploratory study examining the nature of domestic violence for a period of six months and published a first report with the title “Plates in a Basket Will Rattle, Domestic Violence in Cambodia”. This study shows that domestic violence in Cambodia is very serious and that victims of violence between husbands and wives rarely seek help and get relief. Wife battering is considered an internal family matter by the courts, police and local authorities, and women are counseled to be patient while abusers go unpunished. Alcohol, poverty, gambling, family squabbles, lack of education, political and social unrest contribute to domestic violence, but sexism, culture, mores and traditional public attitudes cause and perpetuate domestic violence. Gender equity has not been a prominent feature of Cambodian culture, and the traditional role of women is one factor that facilitates domestic violence. Without significant penalties or official public disapproval, batterers feel free to batter and cannot learn other ways to control their anger. Ignoring the problem perpetuates the problem, according to Zimmerman.

The above-mentioned research also indicates that domestic violence causes a lot of damage and loss to the individuals and families as well as to the whole society. Because women make up a significant portion of the labor force in Cambodia[5], when they suffer physical and emotional injury, there are consequences for the family, society and economy. This study further asserts that in cases in which women are battered, the results are often miscarriages, premature births and low birth weight babies. Rape and general loss of women’s self-control negatively affect family planning and can lead to the transmitting of infectious diseases, especially AIDS. Zimmerman's research also points out various key problems such as the emotional states of women who are victims of violence; the reasons why they suffer from violence, but keep bearing it; public and private assistance and laws related to violence as well.

In 1996, PADV, in cooperation with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, conducted further research in the form of a household survey on domestic violence. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of domestic violence in Cambodia. It is important to mention that this study was quantitative and is confirmed as one of the largest surveys conducted on domestic violence in the world. The research focussed on the general nature and types of physically violent behaviors used on the body, attitudes towards and understanding of domestic violence, factors of domestic violence, the connection between violence and violation on one’s own children. The important findings of this research are as follows:

- One out of six women report that they were physically abused by their spouses.

- Half of all women who suffered violence from their spouses, sustained injuries, and more than half of those women had a head injury.

- More than ten percent of Cambodian men interviewed reported that they physically abuse their spouses.

- More than seven out of ten of all women and men interviewed are aware of at least one other family with domestic violence.

- Women who lived with their parents are considered less vulnerable to spousal abuse than when they lived separately from their parents.

- Eye-witnesses of physical battering between their parents reported that over 98 percent of this battering was done by the father against the mother.

- Ten percent of the women interviewed reported that their husbands became abusive after they had been drinking alcohol.

- Thirty-four percent of the woman victims surveyed did not seek help from anyone, and other female victims who do seek assistance mostly contact their neighbors rather than their parents and relatives.

- Almost 100 percent of Cambodians surveyed believed that all forms of physically violent behavior are wrong.

C. Background of Research on Domestic Violence Through Cambodian Newspapers

Institutions that deal with victims have not maintained records of such violence in written documents, and only occasionally preserve female victims’ hand-written complaints. Moreover, PADV observed that although domestic violence was very evident, all too often the only written records were stories accompanying photos in Cambodian newspapers.

Given this lack of documentary information, PADV decided to track the only record available by gathering as many stories of domestic violence together with pictures from 6 Cambodian newspapers over two years from 1996 to 1997. Among those newspapers we can identify two (“Koh Santepheap” and “Raksmey Kampuchea”), which reported most of the stories of domestic violence.

A study of these newspapers yields valuable available information on attitudes and assumptions in the printed media towards domestic violence, which can inform program development.

This research on the newspaper clipping collected by PADV had the following aims:

- To conduct a content analysis of the data that will be useful for PADV's ongoing public awareness and advocacy work. We would want to ask how many victim are women, how many perpetrators are men, in how many cases was there an intervention of a local authority or community member, what were the reasons given for the violence, how many photos were taken of the victim, etc.

- To make qualitative analysis of the attitudes and responses of journalists with regard to domestic violence e.g. was there any attributed or implied blame, was there a moral undertone to the reporting, did the reporter normalize the violence etc.

- To analyze any trends or movement in the way domestic violence was reported over the two year period (style, reporting pattern, attitude).

It was hoped that the potential impact of this research would be that:

· PADV will have additional information about how the popular print in Phnom Penh views and responds to domestic violence. This will inform future awareness campaigns and training programs.

· PADV will get information on specific attitudes and stereotypes that exist about domestic violence, as reflected in press, which may need to be challenged.

· Research results will be useful for general advocacy and networking.

· Research results will be also useful for PADV's partners (other NGOs) for their work.

· Results will be disseminated amongst Khmer journalists as a first step to domestic violence awareness-raising in this sector.

· Those journalists will obtain information on how they can assist victims and influence positive intervention.

Chapter 1. KINDS OF VIOLENCE PORTRAYED

PADV gathered articles on domestic violence from six Khmer newspapers: Raksmey Kampuchea (Ray of Cambodia), Koh Santepheap (Peace Island), Chakroval (the Universe), Setkech (Economy), Sangkruos Khmer (Save the Khmer), and Pulroth Khmer (Khmer Citizens), issued from late 1995 to December 1997. But among those newspapers, only two newspapers - “Kos Santepheap” and “Raksmey Kampuchea” - published most articles connected with domestic violence. Those articles showed different cases of domestic violence, that is, not only violence between spouses, but also violence within extended families as well as suicides.

A. The Term "Domestic Violence"

What is domestic violence? If we examine the use of this word in the Khmer language, we note the following:

“Hoengsa” (violence) is aggression, harassment, bad treatment or abuse. “Krousar” (family) is ‘trakol’ ‘A group of family members including parents and children’. Thus, domestic violence is aggression, harassment, bad treatment and abuse in the family and a group of family members that consist of parents and children[6].

In the Khmer language, the word ‘Krousar’ refers to ‘a small family’ or ‘nuclear family’ but also means ‘big family’ or ‘extended family’. Moreover, this word can also mean the whole society, in a figurative way, for example:

Do you have a family yet? (Are you married or not?);

My family works at the Ministry of Justice (A member of my family works at the Ministry of Justice);

This family has five members, headed by my father.

Apart from that, there also exists the term ‘Kruo’, meaning a group of people that consists of parents and children who live together[7]. For example, "how many families live in this house?" This word is similar to the word ‘household’ in English.

For the purposes of the research, domestic violence was defined as any violence occurring between members of a family or any incidents that were recorded where domestic violence was cited as the cause. This includes such cases as suicide, for example.

In addition, the term “violence” means aggression, bad treatment and abuse, includes physical, emotional, sexual and social-economic aggression. That is why in this report, domestic violence refers to any physical, emotional, sexual and economic aggressive and violent acts that a member of a family commits on another member with the aim to increase their power over the victims. It also refers to self-violation acts due to aggression from other family members.

The articles that PADV collected totaled 193 cases. But for the purpose of this research, only 183 cases could be considered cases of domestic violence, while the other 10 cases were classified as violence in society rather than domestic violence. For example, we did not have any clear reason or evidence to classify as domestic violence an incident reported in the Kos Santepheap newspaper (24 June, 1997) entitled “5-Month Pregnant Woman Got Divorced and Met Gangsters... Women from the Countryside Should be Careful with City Gangsters”. It described that, “There was a woman who had an abdominal pain sleeping near the river bank... was rushed to Calmet hospital by a journalist". She did not say clearly why she ended up sleeping there with abdominal pain, but only said that, “... 4 or 5 days ago, she had such a big row with her husband that they ended up getting a divorce. Because she got furious with him, she left Battambang ... She did not describe the row to us". It was not known how she got injured, just that her breath smelled of hypnotic medicine.

Nonetheless, such articles, which are related more to social violence, than domestic violence are still useful examples that can be considered along side other forms of violence mentioned in newspapers.

B. Location of Domestic Violence cases

Domestic violence takes place everywhere, both in cities and the countryside. Among our 183 cases, the number of cases in cities is only slightly less than that in the countryside, that is 74 in cities and 96 in the countryside. There was no mention of the locations in 13 cases. Out of 74 urban cases of domestic violence, 71 cases happened in Phnom Penh, two cases took place in Takmao, in Kandal province, and one case occurred in the provincial town of Banteay Meanchey. Out of 96 cases that occurred in the countryside, Kandal province had 47 cases, Banteay Meanchey province had 5 cases, Prey Veng province had 12 cases, Kompong Cham had 11 cases, Kompong Speu had 9 cases, Kratie had 1 case, Kompong Thom had 3 cases, Kompong Chhnang had 6 cases, Takeo had 1 case and Koh Kong had 1 case.

When there was any mention of area names including the words ‘Khan’ (city district), or Sangkat (city quarter) or ‘Krong’ (town), those areas were considered to be urban areas. When the word ‘Srok’ (district) was used, it was concluded that it was in the countryside. With regard to exact locations, the newspaper articles sometimes gave detailed descriptions such as house numbers, street numbers (in Phnom Penh), or village names (in provinces), but sometimes mentioned only their general whereabouts. Hence, according to these newspapers, it was found that the places where most violence took place were Phnom Penh and its neighboring populous provinces. This is probably because Phnom Penh and Kandal are close to newspaper offices, making it easier for journalists to seek information here than other places that are far away. Therefore there is no way for us to get an accurate sense of distribution of domestic violence from the data.

C. Violence in Different Relationships

From a Cambodian viewpoint, nobody is perfect. But every injury that one member of society causes to another may be pardoned or punished according to the nature of that injury. In order to avoid committing injuries or offenses, people employ various means of constraint such as religion, social morality and state laws. These institutions have strict provisions for each society member to comply with. In Cambodian society, religion uses the word ‘sin’ in order to prevent any wrong-doing. One must go to hell for one’s wrong-doings. For example, for stealing someone else’s wife, one must climb ‘Rokadek’ (a mythical thorny iron tree that grows in hell); for drinking alcohol and spreading gossip, one’s mouth will be burned, etc. Social morality also restricts the freedom of society members to behave as they want. Thus when any society member has done something which conflicts with the norms of social behavior, society will punish him or her. For example, when a society member behaves in a manner that is considered ‘abnormal’ s/he will be shunned. The state’s laws also exist to punish law-breakers.

Although most members of society are aware of religion morality and law, some still commit intentional injuries or offenses. Cursing, defaming or causing physical injury on other people are considered offenses. By contrast, domestic violence, husbands battering wives, wives battering husband, parents beating or cursing children are considered normal within family life in Cambodia. In Cambodia, there is no specific law on domestic violence that outlaws these acts, although current criminal law can and is, on occasion, applied.

According to the data gathered from the Khmer newspapers over these two years, 183 cases were related to domestic violence, or 7 cases per month. They were all serious domestic violence cases occurring between husbands and wives, among other family members and suicides. These are only the cases that journalists reported. In reality there is very likely many more cases. Nevertheless, these few cases can provide some interesting insights into domestic violence in Cambodia.

Those violent acts include: cursing, insulting, battering with arms or legs, scattering acid, scratching with razors, hacking with big knives or axes, slitting throats, clubbing with wooden sticks, stabbing, shooting with guns, clubbing with metal sticks or chains, throwing dishes and sickle, burning with oil or petrol, chasing to hack, grenade attacks, poisoning, raping, manacling, tying to pillars, beating and tying upside down, striking the head against the floor tiles, selling one’s own children, threats, running away, strangling, pulling glass, pulling and pushing from the house. Whereas, suicide cases include swallowing various kinds of drugs and hanging (see Annex 5). We can presume therefore that many less serious cases of domestic violence are never reported to the authorities and do not appear in the press.

The newspaper articles collected show that in violence between husband and wife, sometimes the husband is the perpetrator and sometimes it is the wife. However, according to the statistics obtained, men perform most of the violent acts on women.

1. Women against Men

In our newspaper data there are two categories of violent act of women against men: intentional and unintentional.

Example 1: “Strong Wife Shot Her Gun in an Attempt to Kill Her Husband” (Raksmey Kampuchea, 15-16 December, 1997):

Ms Phan Sao called grandma Phan Ches, aged 43, is a former soldier in Division number 7 living in Khla Kon village, Kompong Sway commune, Serey Sorphoan district, Banteay Meanchey province. Her husband, Soy Sareth, aged 39, is a medic. They have two children. One day, after he was drunk, the husband started an argument by cursing the wife, making the wife who is short-tempered pull out a gun (AK) and shoot at him three times, but only one shot hit him in the leg. The neighbors said that this couple beat each other very often because the husband is a drunkard “when drunk, he often talks about past stories of the wife who was a widow in order to cause arguments, and the wife is a short-tempered woman”. After firing, she called journalists to take pictures of her action of shooting her husband to publish in newspapers.

In the article's title it seems that the journalist has negative feelings about the wife. The journalist used the word "coeng klang" (strong) which has a negative connotation. But from my point of view Ms Phan Sao is one of the brave Khmer women who shows equality between men and women. She was a soldier, which is a profession dominated by men rather than women in Cambodia. Her act is likely an attempt to protect her rights against a drunken husband who used to talk about her life as a widow. It seems his ridicule drove his wife to extreme and illegal meanness.

Example 2: “Wife Who Is an Adulteress Scattered Acid All Over Her Husband’s Body Because He Also Was an Adulterer ... Too Scary, Don’t Do that” (Koh Santepheap, 24 January, 1997)

A man named Yim Chhoun is married to a woman, named Num Loar, with 3 children and lives in Phnom Thnoat Chrum village, Lvea commune, Preah Sdach district, Prey Veng province. He is a construction worker, and does not stay at home often. When making business trips, Yim Chhoun has a Vietnamese lover in Neak Loeung district. When discovering this, Ms Num Loar had an idea of retaliating against her husband. So, she gave the love letters she wrote to her boyfriend(s) when she was single to the Vietnamese woman in order to show her husband that when he has another wife, she also can find another man, although she already has 3 children. After receiving those letters, Yim Chhoun returned home and requested not to have a divorce with Num Loar for reasons of compassion for their children. At 8 o’ clock at night, Num Loar poured 4 or 5 liters of acid on the man, causing burns from the head to toes, and then ran away.

In the article's title the reporter used the term "mean sahay" (commit adultery). But in the content of article there was no proof that the wife committed adultery. In Khmer terminology if she had sex while single she could not be called an adulteress, but could be called "sangsa" (lovers). The article says the wife had kept her old love letters, but does not mention that she had kept the lovers. Perhaps she gave the letters to the Vietnamese girlfriend as if to say to her husband "I gave up my lovers to be married, but you did not." The husband gets the message and comes back to reconcile with his wife. Then she pours acid on him in anger and vengeance. So her original gesture was just a ruse to test him. He returned to her, but she had decided to kill him.

Example 3: " The Wife Gunned Down Her Husband Because He Committed Sin Every Day" (Polpoath Khmer, October 24, 1995)

On the night of October 22, 1995 at 11.05 p.m. a crime occurred in house No. 25 Eo Norodam Boulevard in front of Ministry of Education Youth and Sport. A man was killed in a blood pool in front of his own car. That 41 year old man was named Meas Saran. He was born in Battambang and currently worked at the Ministry of National Defense. The offender is his 30 year old wife named Pech Chenda from Kampong Trabek, Svay Rieng Province. This family has 3 children.

The information from the police stated that: When Meas Saran came home he gave each child 1500 Riels and went to the bedroom to change clothes. He was very drunk. Going out of his bedroom, he called both servants to bring him the gun, but the servants did not do as he ordered. So he went to take the gun by himself and shouted to his wife and servants: "I will kill all of you right now!" Understanding the situation the wife went to take the gun from her husband and shot at him on the left part of his body so that he died immediately. Feeling that her husband was already dead she left the gun near the back door and fled.

According to Meas Saran's mother in-law, he was drunk every night and when he returned home he always cause arguments with his wife and also intimidated her by using the gun. She also stated that her family has no happiness.

This could be considered a cruel crime in the family that wife decided to kill her husband and left three children living without father.

As the old saying stated: "There are three kinds of madness: gambling, sex and alcohol.

It seems to me that in this story the reporter is unclear about the situation, because there are two other newspapers that reported this story differently (one reported that the wife accidentally shot her husband and another stated that the situation was not clear). The husband was always drunk when he returned home and intimidated his wife by using a gun. Drunkenness is one of the three kinds of madness according to Khmer thought (for example in Cbap Proh), which seems to be quoted here to justify the death of this "mad" man. However, on the other hand the journalist seems to blame the wife by calling her "cruel" to have left her children without a father.

2. Men against Women

These examples are, as expected, much more numerous in our data.

a. Killing Pregnant Wife

Example 4:“Killing Own Wife and Children” (Raksmey Kampuchea, 30 October, 1997)

A man named Men Roeurn, aged 32, living in Prekchik village, Soab commune, Prek Prasob district, Kratie province, is a former "Para" soldier (a resistance movement force before the elections in 1993) who surrendered to the government. This man had a wife, named Leng Vanny, who was 7 months pregnant, and three children. Eye-witnesses said that Men Roeurn carried a long knife up to the house and hacked his wife three times and two of the kids twice and dragged them down from the house. After that this man went and got a chopper to slit their throats one by one by putting their faces against the steps in order to cause the victims to die at once. The police said that the man had wicked friends who used to steal the villagers’ property. This man said he wanted to exterminate his family. The head of Soab commune told us that his 8-year-old kid and mother-in-law were lucky to escape death because when the event took place, they were at school and the pagoda respectively. The police arrested the offender and submitted a file of this event to a court of law.

According to traditional beliefs, when a woman is pregnant, the parents and husband usually take good care of her by not allowing her to do hard work, to grasp anything high up or to have a bath at night and so on. Beliefs like this are based on the fear that these acts can affect the baby and the woman herself, which can cause miscarriage or difficulty in giving birth.

In our data there were two shocking cases of husbands killing their pregnant wives in the Raksmey Kampuchea issues of 23 and 30 October 1997.

Comparing example 4 with another case of a former Khmer Rouge soldier, aged 27, killing his 2-months pregnant wife with a bamboo stick, it can be seen that these men grew up during the Khmer Rouge period. They represent extreme examples of how the ideology of that regime changed the traditional values and influenced the behavior of young soldiers.

In the articles gathered, it was found that violence committed by husband against wife can happen for a variety of pretexts:

b. Scolding as a pretext for domestic violence

Example 5: “Cursed Husband once ... Husband Hacked 7 Times With an Axe” (Raksmey Kampuchea, 2-3 October, 1996)

Ms Ngoun Soeum, aged 47, is married to Prem Sarith, aged 52 and lives in Kork Sway village, Russey Kroak commune, Mongkul Borey district, Banteay Meanchey province. This family does not have any children and often quarrels. One day, this family had a quarrel and the wife cursed the husband with “A Trov Kroap”(The wish of this scolding is that the husband will be killed by any kind of bullets). The husband got so furious that he pulled an axe and hacked her three times. The wife ran to the fence and shouted for help, but the savage husband chased her and hacked several more times until she died at once. After killing his wife, Prem Sarith also hanged himself.

This story points out that, according to Khmer belief, when the wife cursed the husband, who has a higher status than her, by using the words “A Trov Kroap”, It is thought that she put a curse of bad luck on the husband. He took the curse and threat seriously and then got so angry that he chose to kill his wife.

In the relationship between a husband and wife, there is often the use of improper words such as insult or swear words that causes both sides to suffer. It is worth noting that according to the habits of Khmer families, the use of improper words or cursing is judged according to the hierarchy of family members, their ages as well as their sex. On the whole, the father is considered the head of the family, the highest rank, next the mother and then older siblings. Lower rank owes respect to higher rank. When the father and mother curse their children, older siblings curse younger siblings, this is often considered by society to be normal, but when children curse their parents, younger siblings curse older siblings, or the wife curses the husband, this is deemed as abnormal. In some cases where there is a lack of respect towards a woman, for example cursing a woman in public, the man also will be condemned by the society.

c. Food and Jealousy as a pretext

Example 6: “Bouncer in World 2 Night Club Shot His Own Wife” (Koh Santepheap, 13 February, 1997)

Ms Dy Sopharn, called Mao, lives in the Building squatters’ area has a husband named Dom Sarorn, aged 31, who is a security guard at World 2 Night Club. The husband always comes home at 1 o’ clock every morning. Ms Dy Sopharn usually got up and prepared a meal for him. One day, by accident the meal she prepared was eaten by her younger sibling. She went down to buy Banhchhev [a kind of Vietnamese light dish], at the time the husband came back. The man got angry and shouted and pulled and fired a gun. She was so scared that she tried to run to her older sister’s house and hide there. The husband chased her and shot to the ground, and then called her to come out. Because of the fear that her husband might shoot into the house, she decided to come out and go back home with him. When she went into their bedroom, the husband pulled out the gun and shot the wall. The bullet penetrated the wall and seriously injured the woman in the head and the man rode off on a motorbike. Emergency doctors cannot determine whether she will survive or not.

In this case it is difficult to understand whether the injury to the woman was intentional or not. He returned home and got angry because he found no home-cooked meal ready for him. In Khmer belief, to prepare food is a gesture of respect from a person of lower status to a the person of higher status. The man's anger or rage was probably due to a feeling of insult at receiving the Vietnamese food instead of his wife's cooking. This rage at disrespect is a striking characteristic of Cambodian "macho" culture.

d. Defeat one another as a pretext

Example 7: “You know? Three wounds because of candy” (Koh Santepheap, 30 December, 1995)

A man named Soam Sopharn, aged 32, living in Tropaing Sala village, Chhoe Kach commune, Bah Phnom district, Prey Veng province, is married to Chan Sokharn, aged 20. The man got angry with his wife, who often bought bad food for their child causing the child to get sick. He took the child to buy some candies for 500 riels in order to hurt his wife's feelings. When seeing this, the woman grasped the can