ONE man resorted to drugging his wife to prevent her from socialising with her friends, especially men.

He was jealous and worried that his wife, whom he said was pretty and with a good figure, would be seduced by other men.

The wife later became a drug addict.

A legal adviser with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Mr Ahmad Razif Mohd Sidek, highlighted this and other bizarre cases as part of a seminar on addressing abuses against women held in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan two nights ago, reported Harian Metro.

He said: 'The man's action of drugging his wife resulted in her being addicted to drugs. We received a complaint from one of the wife's relatives that he had been administering her the drugs to keep her in the house.'

The case has been referred to the relevant authorities, he said.

And other tactics used by jealous husbands to keep tabs on their wives?

Sprinkle flour

How about sprinkling flour in the front porch area to detect if the wife has left the house or if a foreign set of shoe-prints were found, and presumably entered the house when the husband is at work?

Sounds ridiculous but there was such a case, said Mr Ahmad Razif.

He said: 'In this case, we called on both the wife and husband to attend a counselling session to get to the root of their issues.'

Yet another case involved a man 'caging' his wife in the house, to prevent her from leaving the house while he was away.

All three cases have been classified as physical and emotional abuse, even though it doesn't have the usual physical abuses like slapping, punching or kicking.

Said Mr Ahmad Razif: 'We want to highlight these cases to make the public aware that abuse does not refer to only those in the traditional physical sense.'

Long-lasting impact

The kind that exists in the form of emotional abuse such as in the cases cited can have long-lasting and severe impact, he said.

He added: 'Our ministry receives about two cases of domestic abuse per month and we believe that there are many others that go unreported.

'The wife may not report for various reasons, including not being aware that the actions she has been subjected to constitutes abuse or that she is worried about future repercussions with her husband.

This article was first published in The New Paper