Calling your wife ugly may become offence in Malaysia

Calling your wife ugly to humiliate her may soon be considered an offence under proposed amendments to the Domestic Violence Act 1994.

The amendments will include a clause on emotional violence against women who are currently only protected against physical abuse.

Women’s Development Depart- ment director-general Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said the aim of proposing the amendment was to safeguard women both physically and emotionally.

She said emotional violence was a form of abuse that would scar women deeply and lower their self-esteem, dignity and self-confidence.

“It could be a case when a husband tells his wife she is ugly or humiliates her until she feels emotionally pressured,” she told reporters at the end of a seminar on how to curb violence against women at Wisma Wanita yesterday.

She added that they were in the process of bringing the proposed amendments to Parliament.