In another horrifying case of domestic violence in Indonesia, a man from the Bireuen Regency of Aceh allegedly committed a brutal crime against his own wife, reportedly because she wanted to leave him.
A 60-year-old man, identified by his initials HR, allegedly poured boiling water over his wife, identified as M – simply because she wanted to divorce him.
The police said that HR confessed to the crime, saying that he was angered by his wife's decision and that wanted to make sure no other man would want her, which drove him to violent extremes.
"His motive was jealousy as he was upset with the victim who wanted to file for divorce. He wanted to make her disabled so no one would marry her again," Eko Rendi Oktama, the head of criminal investigations for Bireuen Police, said Wednesday as quoted by Detik.
According to a report by the victim's family, HR poured the boiling water over M's face and body while she was sleeping in their home in Geulanggang Gampong Village. Police soon arrested HR while M was brought to a hospital in the Acehnese capital of Banda Aceh, where it was reported that her burns were so severe that they required surgery.
HR has been charged with violating Indonesia's Domestic Violence Laws and could potentially face 10 years in prison.
A 2017 government study showed that around one-third of Indonesian women (26 million people) have faced physical or sexual violence in their lives. Activists say that, despite the country developing in many ways, patriarchal social attitudes still strongly persist, leading to many instances of gender-based violence.
In 2016, the Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas PA) recorded over 13,000 cases of violence against women, 75 percent of which were cases of domestic violence.