Goin’ to the chapel? Not without passing this DV course

Romanian men who want to get married will have to complete a course on domestic violence first.
The Telegraph (U.K.) is reporting that the three-day course is designed to deter men from abusing their wives. If they won’t attend the course, the government won’t issue the marriage license.
There are also classes geared toward women, who will learn about their rights and that they do not have to tolerate beatings. (The article doesn’t say whether women will be compelled to attend.)
Romania has only recently begun to recognize domestic violence as a problem. The new law sprang from a government survey published this year that found many men regarded a marriage licence as permission to beat their wives. About 1/4 of all violent incidents in Romania are domestic violence-related. And Bucharest, a city of 3 million people, has only three battered women’s shelters.
Dr Gabriela Kubinski, who runs a shelter at a textiles factory, said the classes were unlikely to do more than scratch the surface of the problem.
“The new plan has only one thing to recommend it, which is that after all these years of the problem being ignored, something is at least being done,” she said.