Domestic violence always happens in Cambodian society, most girls and women are falling victims. On the contrary, I saw fighting and argument by women slapped and pulled out a man’s face and hair in restaurant in Phnom Penh at around 9:00 pm, while a man was sitting together with his friends drinking. To me and my friends, we were sitting next to his table. When the fighting occurred, the women aged around more than 30 years old pulling the man’s hair. A girl who was beer promotion girl walked to me and then I asked her. What happened? She said that an angry woman was man’s wife.
Amongst all guests in the restaurant, no one knew why a woman felt angry with a man until small argument happening in public. Was the women’s or man’s mistake? Are they wife and husband who really love and respect each other in family? If the violence happened in family, it is not good because violence will affect their son or daughter and their reputation and so on.
This was the first time; I saw dispute happening in public by wife fought husband. I think that if there is controversy happening in family, either has to find a middle way to solve problem.
While my wife and I would never argue in public, I do not find it troubling to see women enraged at their husband. Most of the time, it is the husband who battered their wives. However, public sentiments favored male over female.