Within the framework of the “Empowerment of older women: preventing violence by challenging social norms in Serbia and Austria (EmPreV)” project, and with support of the Red Cross Pirot, focus group interviews were organised with older, middle aged and younger women from urban and rural areas. The aim of these interviews is to collect information about violence against older women, as well as attitudes of women of different ages and backgrounds on violence, its roots and how to prevent it.

The discussion with women from the town of Pirot and the Stanicenje village touched on their perception of the prevalence of violence affecting older women, what are the risk factors and whether the participants know older women who were or are targeted by violence at the moment. One of the important topics discussed was how the participants viewed the system and its mechanisms for protection, the ways of reporting violence and why more cases are not being reported. The reason women do not report violence more frequently is best explained by one of the older participants: “Women won’t report their men as they say ‘It hurts when he is violent, but it also hurts to see him prosecuted’”. Social inclusion of older women was mentioned as a protective factor, emphasising the need to work more on inclusion of older persons in general in their communities, to decrease the risk of violence and increase the cohesion in the society.

This project is implemented in partnership with the Austrian Red Cross and Austrian Institute for Conflict Research and supported by the European Union and Austrian Development Agency.