Late last week, a United Nations regional commission based in Beirut, Lebanon, proved an existent correlation between "intimate partner violence" and a country's economy.
With an increased number of Arab women >facing sexual and physical abuse on a regular basis throughout the region, expenses to cover medical bills are on the rise as well.
>NGOs and associations, including the UN, have been constantly attempting to incite Arab communities to take precautions, hoping it would lower - and eventually put a stop - to gender-based abuse.
According to the World Health Organization, 37 percent of married women in the East Mediterranean region - including several Arab countries - are physically or sexually abused by their partners.
That is one in three women, mainly aged between 15 to 49.
"Many countries in the Arab region still see violence against women and deal with it as a private issue and not a public issue," said Mehrinaz Elawady of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
Based on a model recommended by the UN in 2015, Egypt was able to estimate $123 million of gender-based violence fees.
The economic cost of violence represents the "expenses to the health system, counselling, justice system, and loss of wages for working victims."
In hope of making a lasting change in the region, world leaders gathered at the UN late September and agreed to double their stance against women's violence in an half-a-billion-dollar effort.
The organizers stated that the money will "fund anti-violence programs that promote prevention, bolster government policies and provide women and girls with improved access to services."
They also explained how a focus will be directed at "human trafficking, femicide (the killing of a girl or women based on her gender) and family violence."