Violence against women includes physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual abuse of women by men, domestic violence being the most common form. Malaysia's rating was 0.681 under the Global Gender Gap Report 2022 and ranked 103rd out of 146 countries.
Types
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is any behavior by a current or former partner or spouse that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm.
A study conducted by Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2014 shows that 9% of ever-partnered women in Peninsular Malaysia have experienced domestic violence at some point in their lifetime.
Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) statistics on violence against women show that domestic violence increased from 2000 to 2018. In 2000, there were 3468 cases of domestic violence. In 2018, the number increased to 5513. Women's Aid Organization (WAO) executive director Sumitra Visvanathan suggested that Malaysia principle should be strengthened in this area and perceived it as a serious crime in order to reduce unwanted fatalities.
Female genital mutilation
Research indicates that almost all Malay Muslim women have undergone female genital cutting (FGC), largely because they think it is required by Islam. Usually, these procedures are conducted by traditional midwives who are trained in the type IV FGC .
In 2009, the Fatwa Committee of the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs declared that FGM to be compulsory (wajib) for all Muslim women. FGM is a practice that has been the subject of a vigorous policy of zero tolerance from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Issue of such legislation are perceived as “a step backwards” in the fight for women's rights. Historically, the practice of FGM was linked to the coming of Islam and FGM procedures deeply connected to Islam, Islamic notions of body purity in Malaysia and Malay ethnicity.
In Malaysia, few people have any specific information and expressed little concern with regard to the practice of FGM. A study conducted in 2012, by Dr. Maznah Dahlui, an associate professor at the University of Malaya's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, found that 93 percent of Muslim women surveyed had been circumcised.
Another survey by Salleha Khalid et al in 2016 of 402 Malay-Muslim women revealed that only a mere 4% – 16 out of 402 women – had not been “circumcised”. In recent years, organizations such as the UN have been calling for abolition of FGM practices in Malaysia. One of it was from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Committee that called for Malaysia to end FGM practices.
However, some still defended the practice claiming it would be culturally insensitive to abolish FGM completely in Malaysia and that “FGM practiced by the Malay community in north Malaysia is not the same as the FGM performed elsewhere”.
Rape
From 2000 to 2007, there was an increase of rape cases in all 15 states of Malaysia, from 1217 to 3098 cases. Among all 15 states in Malaysia, Johor had the highest rape cases as of May 2017. Based on the statistics released by the Penang Women Centre for Change, one woman is being raped every 35 minutes in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Section 376 of the Penal Code states that whoever commits rape shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years, and shall be liable to whipping.
Marital rape
Marital Rape is not legally recognized in Malaysia . But the new Section 375A states that any husband causing fear of death or hurt to his wife in order to have sex shall be punished for term which may extend to five years.
Since marital rape is not recognized as a crime in Malaysia, it is difficult for women to get access to justice. In a WAO report titled “Perspectives on Domestic Violence” released on International Women's Day in 2015 , the NGO said that rape was a crime even if it occurred in a marriage. The report noted that the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, since 2006, had been asking the Malaysian government to criminalise marital rape.
Legislation
Women in Malaysia have certain protection against domestic violence such as the Domestic Violent Act 1994 and Article 375 of the Penal Code (prohibition of rape).