Every second woman in Pakistan suffers from some form of domestic violence, an expert said in remarks published on Sunday.

The violence has an extremely damaging effect on her physical and mental well-being, the Dawn newspaper quoted Tazeen Saeed Ali as telling an event at the Aga Khan University on Saturday.

According to Ali, the overall prevalence of domestic violence in Pakistan ranged from 21 to 50 per cent. Women suffered violence over conflicts with husbands and in-laws, at times over financial matters.

"Our study has shown that 97.7 per cent of health professionals suffered some form of domestic violence at some point of their married life whereas 72 per cent had to face sexual abuse at home," Ali said.

She said that women facing violence also developed reproductive health problems.

Infertility, she pointed out, was also found to be a major factor that provoked violence against women though violence had its roots in the submissive gender role the society assigned to women, the Dawn reported.