Women's rights activists in Bandung have largely failed to empower female victims of domestic violence to defy their husbands and seek legal means to protect themselves and their children, an expert says.

Only two of six incidences of domestic violence reported this year have been brought to the Bandung District Court.

Records at the Bandung Religious Court reveal a steep increase in the number of divorces due to domestic violence to 27 cases this years as of November from five last year.

"The number is of wives who testified that they were being abused by their husbands. Many of the domestic violence cases were reported as having boiled over from heated arguments," the religious court's deputy clerk Rahmat Setiawan told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"But many housewives did not cite domestic violence as the reason (for divorce) but rather instead simply stated there was disharmony in their marriages."

Rahmat said the number of divorce cases brought to the religious court this year was 15 percent higher than in last year, or 2,342 cases in 2008 from 2,049 last year.

He said he suspected that "disharmony" was largely cited as a reason for divorce as a cover for domestic violence, adding that the ratio of reported marriage breakdowns citing disharmony had increased from to 71 percent in 2008 from 58 percent last year.

Ummi Maskanah of the Women's and Children's Legal Aid Institute said the reason that only two out of six marriages known to have experienced domestic violence ended in divorce was because women tended to take pity on their husbands and were not inclined to report them to the district court.

"The wives would in the end prefer mediation as they were unable to see their husbands in the defendant's chair," she said.

"Although they have sat through counseling, love remains a psychological barrier (to sending their husbands to jail). The wives cannot let their husbands languish in prison."

However, the same could not be said for Rika Mayrani, 31, and Susilawati, 39, who both reported their husbands to the district court on charges of assault. Rika filed a divorce lawsuit after her husband of six years allegedly tormented her in an effort to evict her from their house.

During the marriage, Rika suffered a miscarriage. Rika said the court had denied her husband access to their children – twins, who were born in July; after the trial verdict.

"Initially, my husband accused me of having an affair with one of his employees but it was not proven during our divorce trial last year. I was not having an affair," she said. "But he then sent his goons to frighten me."

She initially reported the case to the National Women's Commission, which suggested she get legal aid. Susilawati's husband, who is a police officer at the Bandung City Police, slammed a door on his wife, bruising her.

After divorcing her husband, Susilawati, who hails from Bangka Island, sought for her husband to be taught a lesson for his actions.

"We had been married for 16 years and I struggled with him but then he changed," she said. "When I asked him (a question), he refused to answer me and we then argued. He even tortured me." Susilawati raises her two children alone. - JP/Yuli Tri Suwarni