KUALA LUMPUR: A new reported incident of violence against women in Malaysia has again highlighted what women here say is more police action and a social campaign to help end violence directed at the female population in the country. “We are stuck in this continued struggle between action and violence and the violence is winning,” said single 25-year-old interior designer Amara Mahammad, who told Bikyamasr.com that “without stiffer penalties towards men who use violence against women, it won't get better.” Her comments came after local newspaper Harian Metro reported that a husband brutally attacked his wife with a rolling pin, beating her repeatedly before pushing it into her genital area. The incident happened at the couple's home in Jalan Sultan Abdullah in Teluk Intan, Perak, on Monday after the 37-year-old man came home drunk and accused his wife, 36, of having an affair. After she went unconscious, police reported that he sexually assaulted her and then fled the scene. The woman was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for her injuries. The husband has been arrested. But with more and more reports of spousal abuse and violence against women at car parks in the country, numerous Malaysian women are fearful that the government is not doing enough to counter the rise in attacks. “We need something to be done in this country because the reports are becoming an almost every day occurrence and it is frustrating,” added Mahammad. She said that she refuses to go out in public after sunset without a group of friends for fear she could be attacked. “The government and the police need to act quicker and make something change,” she argued. For many women, young and old, the violence being perpetrated against Malaysian women is becoming a debilitating situation where they fear walking out of their homes.
