Fatimah (front, centre) – flanked by Noriah on her left and Dr Haliza – joins WOC committee members and participants of the seminar for a group photo.
KUCHING: Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah hoped more organisations would hold programmes or campaigns regularly to help stop domestic violence against women.
According to her, the number of reported domestic-violence cases against women in the state had increased from 279 last year to 349 in the first 10 months of this year.
“This is a worrisome trend, and its impact can be very traumatic to the victims,” she said at the launch of a seminar on domestic violence conducted by Women’s Organisation for Change (WOC) here yesterday.
“Women who are victims of domestic violence can be physically, mentally and socially affected.”
Fatimah said while the government had already implemented a number of initiatives to protect women from violence and to eliminate domestic violence, it was also up to every member of the community to help reduce the occurrence of such incidents.
She pointed out that one way to help the victims would be through the sharing of information, which could be done through seminars.
“I believe that the dissemination of important information, such as experience and how they (former victims) overcame the fear and trauma, could empower many more women out there,” she said.
Fatimah also dispelled the misperception that victims of domestic violence were all full-time housewives.
“There are victims who are part-time workers as well as highly educated and professional women.”
Even more worrying, she said, was that the current statistics were only based on reported cases.
She believed there were many more cases that remained unreported because of reasons such as the social stigma of betraying one’s husband and the fear of losing one’s husband or one’s sole source of income.
“Many women may think that ‘if I report him, it could destroy my family. If my husband
goes to jail, what benefit is there for my children and me?’ There are also some who think that such violence is not their spouses’ fault: it’s theirs. They think that there must be something wrong with them, and as such, they would just tolerate the abuse.
“You cannot continue to think that way. You need to find a way out. Lodge reports against your abusers. There is already an established system that will protect you and bring the aggressors to justice.”
Meanwhile, Fatimah lauded WOC on its quick response to her suggestion to hold a seminar on the prevention of domestic violence.
“I look forward to seeing more seminars of this kind for women, especially the victims of domestic violence. On this, I hope the WOC would be able to speak up for victims of domestic violence in Sarawak.”
State Family and Women Department director Noriah Ahmad and WOC president Dr Haliza Zurah Zulkefeli were also present at the seminar.