Adultery on the rise in Malaysia: report

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Extra-marital affairs are on the rise in Malaysia, as women seek to punish their cheating husbands or find comfort after suffering abuse at the hands of their partners, a report said Monday.

Meanwhile, the number of paternity tests is also increasing as suspicious men want to make sure they have fathered their wives' children, the New Straits Times reported.

"It has been on the rise over the past 10 years. Ten years ago, women hardly cheated on their husbands. I only received a handful of cases then," Paul Jambunathan, psychologist at International Medical University, told the paper.

"Most do it out of anger at being cheated by their husbands ... (In) those days, women kept silent and continued receiving abuse from their partners. But today, women are more aware of their rights."

Jambunathan said that out of every five couples that he counsels on a monthly basis, an average of three women have cheated on their husbands.

A small percentage of women also engage in affairs because of dissatisfaction with their sex lives, he added.

Primulapathi Jaya, head of the government's chemistry department, said the number of fathers demanding DNA tests on their newborns was rising.

In 2006, 50 men made such requests, more than double the 20 cases reported in 2004, he said.

Malaysia's National Council of Women's Organisations vice president Faridah Khalid said the number of men who cheated still far surpassed the number of women having affairs.

"There might be a handful of women cheating on their husbands. But do not blame them. There could be a lot of push factors that led them in that direction," she said.