A woman lawyer says that the sex issue has never been raised in the many divorce cases she has personally been handling in court.

NONE Voon Shiak Nie ( right ) said the issues which she had been handling for years are usually about finance and the alleged lack of responsibility on the part of the spouse.

“I have yet to come across a husband petitioning to the court to divorce his wife because she cannot sexually satisfy him,” Voon, who is also the Wanita PKR national vice-chief, said at a press conference yesterday.

She said marriage is all about communication and sharing thoughts and work that can create a strong bond between the husband and wife.

“It is more about whether a couple can get along with each other and has the mental and spiritual attachment for a marriage to work,” she said when commenting on Obedient Wives Club (OWC) vice-president Rohaya Mohamad’s statement that a good or religious wife should also be good in bed.

NONE She had added that a husband who was kept happy in the bedroom would have no reason to stray, seek out prostitutes or indulge in other social vices.

Rohaya ( left ) wanted the wife to be a good sexual worker for the husband so that they would not go to prostitutes.

Voon, meanwhile, asked Rohaya whether she had done enough research to say that most marriage failures were due to the wives not satisfying their husbands’ sexual desires.

“I advise her to do a bit of research before making public statements which put the whole of Malaysian men and women in embarrassment.

Facebook the new cause of marriage failures in Canada

“If she is serious about reducing family problems, she should note that a study done in Canada found that about 70 percent of the marriage failures in that country were blamed on social networking website Facebook ,” she said.

She said Facebook is the new cause of marriage failures in Canada.

Voon asked Rohaya whether her statement was supported by any facts or statistics or whether it was her personal opinion.

“Is she reducing the marriage institution to mere sexual vows?” she asked.

Sarawak Wanita PKR head Norhanim Mokhsen, who was also present at the press conference, acused Rohaya and OWC members of looking down at the status of women in the country.

“They have condemned the women to be the sexual slaves of their husbands,” she said, asking  why must the wives have to undergo a sexual course just to make their husbands happy.

“Are they blaming the wives as solely responsible for the marriage failures?” she asked.

“Based on the statement by the club, they are implying that all the marriage failures were due to the women who failed to do a good job in bed for their husbands,” she said, asking whether Rohaya and other club members would consider asking the men to form a Loyal Husbands Club as well.

She said it is the joint responsibility of both the wives and husbands to make the marriage work.

She also accused Rohaya and the club members of being unrealistic in their view that marriages could only be kept intact solely on the basis that the wives must sexually satisfy their husbands.

“I hope that Rohaya does not take her personal views and ideals and impose them on others,” Norhanim said, reminding Rohaya that she and other club members were advocating the enslavement of women by their husbands.

“She must apologise to the Malaysian men and women for the disgrace that she and the club had brought upon them by the baseless, outrageous and ridiculous statement they have made and which was not endorsed by any school of thought as far as we know,” she said.

Housewife Lynette Tan, who is also present at the press conference, said Rohaya’s statement was rather tasteless and has made Malaysia the butt of jokes among neighbouring countries.

“Naturally, it a huge slap on the face and an insult to the women,”she said, adding that the formation of the club would be used by the men as an excuse to go astray.