PETALING JAYA: The recent video on “tips for husbands to advise their wives” by Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff is appalling, said Muslim women’s welfare group.
Sisters of Islam (SIS) said it was unacceptable and deplorable for Siti Zailah to advocate for women as inferior beings who deserve to be reprimanded and corrected for their behavior.
“The video by Siti Zailah mentioned that husbands are allowed to strike their wives with a soft yet firm physical touch is dangerous and misleading as there is no such thing as a husband hitting a wife gently.
“Violence is violence and there is no justification on how a husband should “educate” or “reprimand” a wife. Furthermore, the narrative that a husband is allowed to educate his wife by hitting her gently arguably opens the door to violence especially since there has yet to be a wife who has complained that she has only been gently hit by her husband,“ the group said in a statement today.
The group also pointed out that the video is also highly embarrassing for the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD) and of the Perikatan Negara government as it demonstrates that she is stuck in very old ways of interpretation and thinking about the status of women in relationships, and that they can never be regarded and treated as equals to her husband.
Over the weekend, Siti Zailah received backlash for posting a video on social media advising husbands to use a “gentle but firm physical touch” to reprimand their wives.
In the video, the deputy minister explained different ways of reprimanding their wives and also urged women to be softer with their husbands.
