“He was a very jealous man, very temperamental and maybe he even had psychological problems. I had no right to say anything, to take any decisions. I always had to avoid him in the house, be in another room. He would beat me in front of the children, and beat the children too,” tells D.M., an Armenian housewife identified by initials in a recent international report.

“I’m very ashamed that someone could use force against me. That’s what I always said to the counselor when I was at the shelter: I’m tortured by one thing, I’ve got one basic psychological problem. How did I allow someone to treat me like that? That will haunt me for the rest of my life, how did I allow that to happen? The point is, I didn’t have a choice,” anther woman, P.N, a victim of domestic violence, tells her story, according to a report published by a leading global watchdog, Amnesty International, this week.