More and more women victims of domestic violence wish to reconsider their lives and start discussing what they have experienced and start looking for legal information and protection.

The appeal “Fight against the silence” made by the Center for equality, is answered by women who live in the city and are not afraid to talk about their problem unlike those who live in the country. The social employee of the Center, Eleni Ktouna says that many families consider the violence within the family “private affairs,” which is mostly valid for the small towns and the villages. The number of women who have been served in last year and a half by the Center is 3 431, out of which the new calls are 1 962 women.

The Center for equality has opened offices in several major cities in Greece, along with residential facilities, where women victims of domestic violence could ask for help. Ms. Evgenia Tsoumani – secretary general of the Center for equality stated that from the next year offices for help will be opened within the municipalities, where the Center will help not only by financing, but also by transferring their experience and knowledge about the ways in which these situations should be handled.

According to data from a research within the offices in Athens and Pireia, 67% of the women who have suffered domestic violence are married and 21% or 1/5 are divorced or in the process of divorce. Seven out of ten women have graduated high school or have university degree and six out of ten have stated they have good financial position. Concerning the perpetrators – one out of ten is unemployed and the consumption of alcohol or other drug abuse is not in any case the main reason for the acts of violence.

In 2006 a law admitting the existence of domestic violence within Greek families was voted and it formulates the violence against women and domestic raping as a crime. To the question whether the women victims of domestic violence can start legal procedures the lawyer Andronikos Tambekos answers that “women who live in Athens have more courage to look for their rights in legal ways. In the country the communities are still closed, but there are many charges by third parties, which allow us to be more positive.”

From global point of view, using data from the World Health Organization, between 20% and 75% of women, have at least once in their lives been victims of violence.