Watching the “War on Women” film makes me feel so disturbed even though I am not in their shoes. The fact that these women have to go through these horrible experiences is so upsetting which should be an urgent public health priority. Like other societies, some of Malaysian women also experienced domestic violence which includes incest, rape, sexual abuse and many others. Violence against women was used to be treated as a private matter between partners or between the victims and the perpetrators. According to the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), a total of 15,617 cases of domestic violence were reported in Malaysia between 2014 and 2017. It is very alarming as the number keeps increasing year by year. However, it also means that more women are aware of their rights, what constitutes domestic violence and that know the resources to seek help if they are in that situation. According to a report by Ministry of Women and Family Development of Malaysia (2003), Malaysia has established Domestic Violence Act in 1994 which provide the mechanism to disseminate information on women’s rights and also encourage them to make reports on domestic violence. On top of that, as of 1998, 88% of government hospitals had established one-stop centers where victims could make reports as well as receive any possible treatment from authorized agencies without having to go through complicated process.
A small study has been conducted by those in the health care system to assess the health practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes and practices related to the domestic violence cases. (Othman & Adenan, 2008) The result shows that majority of the health care professionals were not knowledgeable and do not know the right way to respond to women who complained about violence. I personally think that this is one of the examples on how reframing violence against women and trauma as health issues challenge our understandings of health, illness and medicine especially towards the health care providers. Besides, this situation become worse when there is a stigma of acceptance of violence in the culture based on the belief that wives are “owned” by their husbands. Most of the times, the victims chose to stay silent because they feel too ashamed to share about their relationship problems and afraid on how the societies will react and look upon them. The most important aspect of acknowledging violence against women is that to create awareness and to really understand about this topic since it is still sensitive and taboo for open discussions in Malaysia. Prevalence of domestic violence against women, which is still a problem in Malaysia often caused by the unequal distribution of power between both men and women. This can be avoided with continuous effort of empowering women through education, economic independence and greater decision-making power.
According to the reading article, intergenerational trauma is a traumatic event that began years prior to the current generation and has impacted the ways in which individuals within a family understand, cope with, and heal from trauma. One of the examples is when families hide sexual abuse among themselves for generations until someone decide to end the secrecy and get real help. Another example is in the “War on Women” film where she told her story on how she was being raped with her kids screaming and asking for help. I believe the horrible event also affected her children. It is believed that intergenerational trauma can negatively impact families as a result of unresolved emotions and thoughts about a traumatic event. (Tamara,2017) A study on Intergenerational perceptions of mass trauma’s impact on physical health and well-being reported that the mass trauma set into motion biological, psychological and social processes, which in turn, have negatively affected physical health across generations. (Bezo, 2018) This shows that there is a need on cultural awareness especially for health care providers who treat patients with family histories of intergenerational trauma. This is because their health problems might be associated with their backgrounds and family histories, hence it is important for us to understand this. Intergenerational trauma interventions in health and social service settings should be encouraged. By doing this, we can work towards preventing the likelihood and impact of transmission of intergenerational trauma within families. This includes preventative interventions in mental health, early childhood and primary health settings.
References:
Ministry of Women and Family Development. (2003). The Progress of Malaysian Women Since Independence 1957 – 2000. Retrieved from https://www.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/WomenE/ProgressOfMalaysianWomen.pdf
Othman, S., & Adenan N. A. M. (2008). Domestic violence management in Malaysia: A survey on the primary health care providers. Asia Pacific Family Medicine, 7(2): 1-8
Tamara, H. (2017). Should mental health professionals understand intergenerational trauma? The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.acamh.org/blog/intergenerational-trauma/
Bezo, B., & Maggi, S. (2018). Intergenerational perceptions of mass trauma’s impact on physical health and well-being. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 10(1), 87-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000284
Hello, I thought you brought up a good point that an increase in reporting domestic violence might mean that women in this country are becoming more aware of their rights. I have noticed that in a lot of other countries, the numbers being reported are very low. This being said, some may view this number as domestic violence is decreasing when in reality many women are probably too scared to say anything or receive help because they may receive backlash. However, it is still important to question this number with different perspectives, for example what if these numbers are higher because of other reasons? What if this number is so high because violence has increased even more? I also liked how you mentioned that events could affect children in a different way if they are watching the abuse. I think something to think about is how they will use this abuse later in life? In the lecture this week they mentioned that the person receiving the abuse (like the women who was raped) is usually scared that they will abuse their own children, however, how likely would it be for the child who watched the abuse, be abusive in their future relationship? I believe that these children would use violence in their future, due to the fact it is probably so familiar to them that it would be normal or they would do it unconsciously. (I hope that makes sense, as I could not watch that video). This being said, we need to view not only how they are emotionally impacted, but how this emotional abuse will later affect their own adult life physically.
I like how you brought up the fact that rates of GBV are going up in Malaysia being a sign of increased reporting. That is a great thing to take note of! GBV is often severely under reported for reasons that you stated in your blog post, and that is something that we often forget about because we forget the nature behind the numbers. It would be alarming that there were low or no reports of GBV in any nation.