Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the perceptions of women attending family health centres regarding violence against women, their attitudes towards violence and their behaviour in relation to this situation.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 310 female participants. Participants were asked to complete a data collection form that included questions measuring sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to violence against women. Research data were collected through face-to-face interviews between September and October 2021. Data analysis was carried out using the SPSS software package.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.23±13.04 years and 33.5% were single. A total of 37.7% of the participants reported having been exposed to some form of violence during childhood, and 31.9% more recently. While 28.3% of the women who had experienced recent violence reported that it had been perpetrated by their spouses/partners, while 44.4% did not answer this question. In addition, 9.7% of the women reported that there could be a reason that could justify violence, with jealousy/honour (30.0%) being the most common reason. The rate of accepting the existence of a reason that could justify violence was significantly higher among those who had been exposed to violence in childhood and among those who had been exposed to violence recently (p<0.05).

Conclusion: These results show that social attitudes need to be changed in the fight against violence against women. It is important to raise awareness that all justifications for violence are unacceptable. In addition, education and awareness-raising programmes on gender equality and violence against women need to be expanded.