The governmental Women's Development Department plans to ask Parliament to ban 'emotional violence' against women, who currently have legal protection against physical assault only, The Star newspaper reported.
Women's groups told the department that husbands who 'demonstrate a pattern of causing mental and psychological damage' should face counseling, fines and jail terms, Ivy Josiah, director of the Women's Aid Organisation, told The Associated Press.
Offenders include a husband who 'tells his wife she is ugly or humiliates her until she feels emotionally pressured,' the government department's head, Noorul Ainur Mohamad Nur, said during a conference on violence against women, the newspaper reported.
Ms Noorul said there was a need to criminalise emotional abuse because it could deeply scar a woman's dignity and self-confidence, the report said.
There were no immediate details about when Parliament would discuss the plan.
About 90 per cent of some 800 women who called the Women's Aid Organisation for help last year reported being psychologically abused, though some were also physically assaulted, Ms Josiah said.
A government representative said Ms Noorul and other officials familiar with the plan could not immediately be contacted on Thursday. -- AP
Taken from straitstimes.com
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