In 2022, Women's Aid Organization (WAO) executive director Sumitra Visvanathan suggested that Malaysia principle should be strengthened in this area and perceived it as a serious crime in order to reduce unwanted fatalities.
In 2009, the Fatwa Committee of the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs declared FGM to be compulsory (wajib) for all Muslim women.
[5] A study conducted in 2012, by Dr. Maznah Dahlui, an associate professor at the University of Malaya's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, found that 93 percent of Muslim women surveyed had been circumcised.
[11] In Malaysia, Section 376 of the Penal Code states that whoever commits rape shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years, and shall be liable to whipping.
But the new Section 375A states that any husband causing fear of death or hurt to his wife in order to have sex shall be punished for term which may extend to five years.
In a WAO report titled “Perspectives on Domestic Violence” released on International Women's Day in 2015 [3], the NGO said that rape was a crime even if it occurred in a marriage.
The report noted that the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, since 2006, had been asking the Malaysian government to criminalise marital rape.
The law took over 10 years to be passed because when women's NGO pushed for the enactment, they were met with resistance from patriarchal forces of the state.
Explanation 2—A Muslim woman living separately from her husband during the period of ‘iddah, which shall be calculated in accordance with Hukum Syara’, shall be deemed not to be his wife for the purposes of this section.
[18][19][20] A recent study identified the pattern of help-seeking by women who have experienced intimate partner violence and their level of satisfaction with the help they receive.
[24] AWAM is a non-profit, independent feminist organisation in Malaysia committed to ending gender-based violence and upholding equality and rights for all.
It was established in 1998. some recent events that AWAM had organized in 2018 focusing on violence against women were:[25] Sisters In Islam (SIS), formed in 1987, was initially a research, policy, and advocacy organisation based in Kuala Lumpur.
Since then, SIS has become a strong force in advocating Muslim women's right in the presence of Islamic revivalism and Islamisation government policies.
[26] This program includes talks and workshops about how women and girls can try to protect themselves and avoid becoming victims of physical violence and cyber crimes, such as Master Saiful Hamiruzzam and team spoke and demonstrated about “How to Be Your Own Bodyguard”, and Cathryn Anila spoke on “How to Surf Online Safely (SOS)” One workshop was also organised by NCWO targeted for the children aged 9 to 18 years on the subject, “The Malaysia We Want for our Family and Country”.