SUPPLIED

Kuala, Lumpur - A group of Malaysian women launched an “Obedient Wife Club” on Saturday, urging members to be “whores in bed” and obey their husbands to curb social ills like divorce and domestic violence.

Islamic group Global Ikhwan held the club's inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur, giving women tips on how to keep their men satisfied and prevent them straying.

“A good wife is perceived to be prim and proper - you just take care of the children - but not much is emphasised on fulfilling sexual needs of the husband. If he needs sex, obey him,” Rohaya Mohamad, the club's vice-president told AFP.

Rohaya said 30 percent of the club members were in polygamous marriages while the rest were in monogamous relationships and that the club was open to non-Muslims.

“You must satisfy your husband. A good wife should be a whore in bed,” said 46-year-old doctor, whose husband has three other wives.

She said the club boasted 800 Malaysian members so far with another 200 from across the Middle East.

Over 1,000 guests and supporters turned up for the launch in a leafy suburb, held in conjunction with a mass wedding of ten couples, with the brides all members of the new club.

“If the wife is obedient, then the husband feels good and is entertained and this builds a closer relationship and greater love and no one strays,” said groom Mohamad Shurahbil Amran, 23.

His bride Umuhani Lokman Hakim, 19, dressed in a golden white Arabic wedding gown, was unforthcoming when asked why she joined the club and would only say: “It is the right thing to do to keep the family together.”

The club has come under criticism from Malaysian women's groups who say the onus on keeping a family together is being unfairly placed on women.

“With obedience comes submission, which may lead to domestic violence and marital rape,” Women's Aid Organisation head Ivy Josiah told AFP.

“We should really be forming equality in marriage clubs,” she added.

Women's rights group EMPOWER said the club was a step back for the progress of the equality movement.

“We cannot go back to caveman days where the man pulls the woman by the hair and takes her to the cave to have his way. We must recognise that women contribute a lot more than just being a sex toy,” the group's executive director Maria Chin Abdullah told AFP.

Polygamy is legal for Muslims, who make up more than 60 percent of Malaysia's population, allowing Muslim men to take up to four wives.

In 2010, a study by a Muslim activist group found men in polygamous relationships find it difficult to meet the needs of all their wives and children, and that the result is often unhappy and cash-strapped families. - Sapa-AFP