A Keelung woman on Friday said that she reported her husband for decades of alleged spousal abuse after seeing news reports about women receiving help in such situations.
The 86-year-old, surnamed Chen (陳), said that she faced abuse since shortly after she was married at the age of 20.
Society was more conservative then and people did not tell others about private affairs, so she never spoke of it, she said.
When she was 40, her husband began living with another woman, she said, adding that she was left to care for her three children on her own.
However, as she could only find work as a restaurant server and dishwasher, her income was meager and she had to borrow money to send her children to school, Chen said.
This year, her husband returned after spending all of his money, as he had nowhere else to go, but began abusing her again, Chen said.
“I planned to let bygones be bygones and was not going to kick him out,” she said.
However, she reported him when he started hitting her again, she said.
After Chen filed a report with Keelung police last month, a Keelung District Court judge “quickly issued a protection order,” which included restraint provisions preventing her husband from coming within 100m of her, she said.
The Keelung Department of Social Affairs arranged for him to stay at a home for elderly people.
The court order ended decades of torment, she said, adding that she had “lived in fear every single day.”
Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed that reports of family abuse have risen over the past several years.
In 2014, there were 114,000 reported cases and the number has risen by approximately 1,500 cases per year since then to 120,000 last year, the statistics showed.
The majority of the cases are spousal abuse or the abuse of a domestic partner, followed by abuse of a child and of elderly people, they show.
Those who experience abuse or know of others in such a situation can call 113 for help from professional social workers, the ministry said, adding that the number can be dialed 24 hours a day from anywhere in Taiwan.
Local centers for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault can assist people with applying for restraining orders, it said.
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