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Sexual Violence in Muslim Countries

Short version: using the best global data (WHO / UN system), Muslim-majority regions show higher rates of physical and/or sexual violence by male partners than Western high-income countries, but the gap is not infinite (think roughly about 1 in 3 women vs about 1 in 4–5 in the West). For non-partner sexual violence (stranger/relative etc.), global differences are smaller and the data from many Muslim-majority states are thin and likely understate the problem.
I’ll break it down and then talk about why the numbers are shaky.

1. What we can compare reliably

The most comparable metric we have is:

Lifetime prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner among ever-partnered women 15–49.
WHO’s 2024 fact sheet (based on the big 2018 prevalence study) gives regional estimates: (World Health Organization)

  • High-income countries (includes Western Europe, North America, Australia/NZ, Japan, etc.): 22%
  • Europe (overall): 22%
  • Americas: 25%
  • Western Pacific (includes Australia/NZ, East Asia, some SE Asia): 20%
  • Africa: 33%
  • Eastern Mediterranean (roughly the MENA region plus Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.; heavily Muslim-majority): 31%
  • South-East Asia (includes Indonesia, Bangladesh, also non-Muslim countries): 33%
    Source: WHO “Violence against women” fact sheet, based on the 2018 global database of violence against women.
    https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (World Health Organization)
    So at a crude regional level:
  • “The West” ≈ high-income / Europe / Americas → ≈22–25% of ever-partnered women experience physical and/or sexual IPV in their lifetime.
  • Regions containing most Muslim-majority countries (Eastern Mediterranean, much of Africa, South-East Asia) → ≈31–33%.
    In plain language:

    In Muslim-majority regions, about 1 in 3 ever-partnered women report physical and/or sexual violence from a partner; in Western high-income regions, it’s closer to 1 in 4 to 1 in 5.

2. How specifically “Muslim countries” look inside those regions

There isn’t one official dataset that tags countries by religion, but there are reviews focused on Arab or Muslim-majority states.

Arab world / Eastern Mediterranean

A systematic review of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the Arab world (22 Arab League countries, almost all Muslim-majority) found: (BioMed Central)

  • Lifetime physical IPV (ever): 6% – 59% across studies
  • Lifetime sexual IPV (ever): 3% – 40%
  • Emotional/psychological IPV: 5% – 91%
    This huge spread reflects differences in:
  • What counts as “violence” in the questionnaire
  • Whether the survey was national or just a city/facility sample
  • How safe women felt disclosing abuse
    A WHO/UN regional fact sheet for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (which is roughly “MENA plus Pakistan/Afghanistan and a few non-Arab states) gives the headline number: (EMRO)

    31% of ever-partnered women have experienced physical and/or sexual IPV in their lifetime.
    https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-27-2021/volume-27-issue-5/addressing-violence-against-women-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-region.html

Example: Iran

A 2023 systematic review of domestic violence in Iran found an overall prevalence of 59% violence against women, with: (Brieflands)

3. The West: sexual violence and IPV

For comparison:

  • WHO’s 22% lifetime IPV figure for high-income countries covers Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. (World Health Organization)
  • Within the EU, a large survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that about 1 in 3 women had experienced some physical or sexual violence since age 15, and 1 in 6 reported sexual violence (including rape). Only about 14% of victims contacted the police. (The Guardian)
    So:
  • The overall experience of violence (any physical or sexual, partner or non-partner) in Europe ends up around similar to global averages—roughly one-third of women—but sexual violence alone (with or without physical) is lower than in many African / South-East Asian / Eastern Mediterranean settings.
  • Western numbers are still heavily under-reported, especially to police, but population surveys are more common there than in many Muslim-majority regions.

4. Non-partner sexual violence (strangers, relatives, etc.)

WHO’s 2024 paper on non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) found: (PMC)

  • Globally, about 6% of women 15–49 report lifetime NPSV since age 15 (≈1 in 17 women).
  • This is based on data from 137 countries, but:
    • Many regions (especially Eastern Mediterranean and some parts of South-East Asia and Africa) have few studies. (Prevention Collaborative)
    • So their estimates are more uncertain and probably understate the problem.
      The paper notes big regional variation, with some high-income regions showing higher measured NPSV—probably because:
  • Acts are better defined in surveys
  • Women are somewhat more able/willing to disclose
  • There are more dedicated surveys capturing sexual assault/rape outside marriage
    In short:
  • For NPSV alone, we can’t say cleanly “Muslim countries are higher/lower than the West” because the data gaps in Muslim-majority regions are huge and the under-reporting bias is strong.
  • What we can say is that NPSV is a significant problem everywhere, and the lack of data in some regions is almost certainly masking a larger burden.
    Global paper:
    https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241564625 (original global estimates)
    https://vaw-data.srhr.org/ (WHO Global Database on violence against women) (World Health Organization)

5. What these numbers do and don’t tell you

A. Rough comparative picture

If you’re just trying to get a sense of relative scale:

  • Intimate-partner physical/sexual violence
    • “West” (Europe, North America, other high-income): ~22–25%
    • Regions with most Muslim-majority states (Eastern Mediterranean, much of Africa and South-East Asia): ~31–33%
      So partner violence is, on average, higher in Muslim-majority regions than in Western high-income ones, but both are very far from “low”: we’re talking 1 in 4–5 vs 1 in 3 women, not 1% vs 50%.

B. Why the gap is probably larger than it looks

The same WHO and UN documents repeatedly stress that prevalence is underestimated everywhere, but especially where:

  • Marital rape isn’t clearly criminalised or socially recognised as violence
  • Reporting sexual violence can itself bring punishment (laws against sex outside marriage, “honour” violence, etc.)
  • Surveys are rare, under-funded, or limited to certain areas
    In the Eastern Mediterranean / Arab / Muslim-majority context specifically:
  • WHO notes very few studies on non-partner sexual violence from that region. (Prevention Collaborative)
  • Systematic reviews highlight serious comparability problems and strong social pressure on women not to disclose IPV or sexual assault. (BioMed Central)
    So the best guess from the public-health side would be:

    The true rate of sexual violence (partner + non-partner) in many Muslim-majority countries is higher than the current survey numbers show, and the “Muslim vs West” gap is likely wider than the already-visible difference in the WHO IPV figures.

6. Very important caveats

  1. “Muslim countries” are not a single unit.
    • Tunisia ≠ Afghanistan ≠ Indonesia ≠ Turkey.
    • Within the WHO data there are Muslim-majority countries with lower-than-regional IPV prevalence and others with extremely high levels.
  2. Religion vs law vs culture vs conflict.
    • The WHO/UN material is very careful not to attribute violence directly to religion; instead they point to:
      • Gender norms (male control over women, acceptability of wife-beating)
      • Legal frameworks (marital-rape exemptions, weak enforcement)
      • Conflict and displacement (which spike sexual violence in any setting) (World Health Organization)
  3. The West also has a major sexual-violence problem.
    • “Lower than Eastern Mediterranean” doesn’t mean “acceptable”: a quarter of ever-partnered women facing physical/sexual IPV is still massive, and EU data suggest around a third of women have experienced some physical or sexual violence since age 15. (The Guardian)

7. If you want to dig country-by-country

The most useful official tool is the WHO/UN violence-against-women database:

  • WHO Global Database on the Prevalence of Violence Against Women
    https://vaw-data.srhr.org/ (Violence against women data)
    You can:
  • Filter by country, region, and type of violence (physical and/or sexual IPV, non-partner sexual violence)
  • Compare, say, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan directly with France, Germany, US, etc.
    If you tell me specific countries you’re most interested in (e.g., “Turkey vs France vs US”), I can pull out the actual percentages and lay them out in a clean comparison table.