Beaten on the Head and Tied in the Bathroom; Another Shocking Story of Domestic Violence Rocks Jordan

News of a new domestic violence incident ignited the Jordanian social media over the weekend, as details of the brutal beating of a young college girl followed her hospitalization because of severe head injuries, brain damage, and septicemia came to the forefront.

Using several hashtags with the young woman's name and the hospital in which she is receiving treatment, online users protested the beating as a new example of the rising number of attacks against women in Jordan over the last year.

Citing anecdotes told by Aya's friends, a phone call she had with a male colleague led one of her brothers to attack her with a heavy object on the head, before her father instructed that she be tied in the bathroom as "punishment". Because of the severity of Aya's injuries as reported, her mother and sisters threatened the males in the family to go to the police if they didn't allow them to send the injured girl to hospital.

The father instructed the family members to promise to tell the hospital doctors that Aya slipped in the bathroom and injured herself to hide the details of their crime.

According to the Jordan Times, the young woman was admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve and is still in a coma as a result of her severe injuries. Social media tweets urged the police to open a thorough investigation into the case which was reported to the police as a "family dispute" after being referred to the Family Protection Department.

Online users called on officials to prosecute Aya's family members and to tighten laws connected to domestic violence, especially in light of the increasing number of deadly attacks during the last several months.