Ministry to provide men protection from domestic abuse

Efforts are being made to draft domestic laws to protect men from being abused, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim. She said existing laws in the country are seen to lean towards women, eventhough men also become victims of domestic abuse. "This new trend of male abuse has led us to consider all this so they are given the same protection as women," she told Bernama at her office here on Thursday. She said they will increase seminars for men in efforts to approach those who have been victims of abuse. "We've been taking the issue of male abuse lightly, but now we need to be more focused as many complaints were received from the public," she said. Rohani said a total of 107 male abuse cases were received by the Social Welfare Department from 2008 to March 2013. However, she also believes a lot of reports were not made due to embarrassment. Previously, several cases occurred involving injuries to the victims. These include a case in Limbang, Sarawak, on May 6 last year whereby a wife locked up, abused and tortured her sick husband for over a year at a house in Kampung Tanggung Unggar, Limbang. The incident was only realised after villagers and close family members could not bear to see the victim suffer and lodged a report to the relevant quarters.