Refuge for abused women in Malaysia

I met Lin three years ago, on my first day with Women’s Aid Organisation, Malaysia’s largest service provider for domestic violence survivors. Abused by her husband, she was seeking help.

Soon after she arrived, we heard a man screaming outside our one-storey office. Through a window, I saw a man whose face was covered in blood. Lin said he was her friend, and we let him in.

The man had been waiting in the car, when Lin’s husband and father appeared and beat him up. I was stunned. I could barely imagine how Lin must have felt – to be in an abusive marriage, to have her father side with her abuser, and to be intimidated when seeking help.

Hundreds of thousands of women in Malaysia have similar stories to tell. A study by Universiti Sains Malaysia released last year estimated that nine out of every hundred ever-partnered women in Peninsular Malaysia have experienced domestic violence. Each story is a painful reminder of the urgent commitment needed to end violence against women.

Domestic violence is not only widespread, it is complex. To end domestic violence, we need to transform systems—review laws and policies, improve enforcement, and change attitudes.

And while we have seen some encouraging developments in recent years, we have a long way to go.

Special legal protection for domestic violence survivors does not apply to survivors who are not married to their abusive intimate partners. There are no standard operating procedures to help multiple agencies work together to cooperatively response to domestic violence cases. Front-line responders are not given nearly enough resources to effectively handle domestic violence cases.

We are advocating reforms to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of women like Lin receive the high quality services they deserve when faced with violence, and reforms that will help prevent violence in the first place.

We are working on it, but we need your help getting there.

Your support will not only help us provide vital services for survivors of domestic violence, it will enable us to continue advocating for better systems to end violence against women.