The use of validated instruments and questionnaires on abuse is of great importance to evaluate and compare the prevalence in different populations worldwide. However, most of the questionnaires available and published are in English. For example, the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire (NorAQ) instrument which was used for the Bidens study in six European countries. A substantial proportion of the pregnant population in the catchment area of the clinical site in Sweden is Arabic-speaking women. As abuse and violence against women is a global concern, it is important to translate these questionnaires to other languages. This process is not just merely a matter of finding a correlating word but also needs to be validated for content and consider the wording in a linguistic and cultural context. This article gives an account of the translation and content validity process and its challenges and pitfalls from Swedish and English into the Arabic language version.
Keywords: assessment; cultural contexts; domestic violence; perceptions of domestic violence; sexuality; spirituality and violence.