Battered Balkan men struggle to overcome social stigma FEATURE 08/10/2010

Battered Balkan men struggle to overcome social stigma

FEATURE 08/10/2010 CUPRIJA — “I must be the first man in the Balkans to admit that I have been battered by my wife,” Dusan Stojkovic said with a wry smile, speaking from Serbia’s first safe house for battered men. It took a lot for the man who is in his fifties to reach out and get help, breaking a taboo in a country where men still cling to a fierce macho image. Stojkovic has been in the safe house for abused men in central Cuprija, the first in Serbia, since it was founded in July 2009 by the Safety for Men non-governmental organization. “My wife and her daughters (from another marriage ) hit me with baseball bats,” he told AFP, thumbing through his thick legal file. After the beatings, Stojkovic said, his wife accused him of battering her, saying she fought back in self-defense. He assumed this was his spouse’s way to get her hands on his assets: The house and his dog breeding business. The hardest part for Stojkovic was to convince people that, actually, he is the victim. He was jailed for two months following his wife’s accusations, and when he was released he was ordered to stay away from his own home. His wife has kept his house, his assets and his business. “All this is the result of the court’s denial that men can also be victims of domestic abuse,” said Verica Zivanovic, a lawyer who volunteers for Safety for Men.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100810com7.html

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