SIS advocacy, legal services and research manager Shareena Sheriff during a presentation on the report’s findings today said their clients who experienced domestic violence reported going through various types of violence or abuse during the movement control order (MCO).

“Reports of physical violence tallied at 37%, psychological abuse at 31%, social abuse at 11%, financial abuse at 16%, and sexual violence at 5%.”

Telenisa also observed two new causes for marriage breakdowns – financial problems and polygamy, each at 10%.

Shareena added that during the MCO, because families were forced to stay home, some wives discovered that their husbands had taken on another wife, sometimes for years without their consent or knowledge.

“Sometimes husbands needed to take calls from the other wife or family while being in the same house.

“The wives would learn of the matter either through messages from the other party, or from finding belongings or documents belonging to their husband on the matter.”

Telenisa said the case of husbands not providing maintenance payments (nafkah), meanwhile, stood at 18%.

On claims for matrimonial properties, Shareena said these have dropped steadily over the years, since 2018.

Telenisa reported that many of their clients, especially housewives, are still unaware of their rights in matrimonial property because they do not make financial contributions.

They added that at times, their ex-husbands would mislead them on the issue to discourage them from staking a claim on their matrimonial home.

In 2020, Telenisa had a total of 422 clients – compared with 610 in 2019 – with 364 new clients and 58 repeat clients.

Of this total, 373 clients were women (88%), 31 were men (7%), and 18 (5%) were not identified.

“The significant drop in clients was likely due to the pandemic and the issue of access.”