Beaten wives finally get a hearing

Xiu Xiaolu winces in pain as she wrings out her cleaning cloth. Her hands, wrists and arms are bruised - the cartilage inflamed - after being twisted and bent amid her attempt to fend off her husband during one of his violent assaults. Her defence was no match for his kicks and punches and they found their target, as they always do.

Xiu, a 28-year-old migrant worker from Anhui province , asks her expat part-time employee if she can be excused from lifting heavy objects during the morning's housekeeping duties. 'My back hurts from where he hit me,' she says; the rest of the evidence is hidden under her clothes.

Being beaten by your husband is not something you openly discuss. For millions of mainland women regularly assaulted by their spouses, it is not something you challenge, either.

The visible bruising is shocking to Western sensibilities, however. Has she ever gone to the police or sought legal action to stop the abuse? She looks surprised and giggles nervously.

Reporting your husband would be an act of betrayal and bring irreconcilable embarrassment and shame on the extended family, she says. 'He's hot-tempered. But he never beats the children. He's a good father. He always apologises.' Even conjuring up in her mind's eye a court scenario with lawyers arguing her case against her husband and a judge imposing a protection order is an impossible feat for wives like Xiu.

'Every woman I know in my town is beaten by her husband. It's what happens, isn't it?' she concludes, dismissing the issues and her bruises in the same efficient way she wipes away Beijing dust from fixtures.