Covid 19 coronavirus: Malaysian government tells wives to stop nagging husbands

The Malaysian Government has been forced to apologise after posting a campaign to social media that told women to stop nagging their husbands to do chores during lockdown.

The campaign was widely criticised as being sexist and was later removed by the government.

The advertisements, posted widely to Facebook by the Women's Affairs Ministry, told women they needed to watch their tone and avoid being "sarcastic" when asking their husbands to help around the house.

Another warned women against nagging their men and suggested they take up the voice of Doraemon, a cartoon cat popular in Asia.

Yet another poster bizarrely asked women to dress up and wear makeup while they were at home.

One of the offending advertisements.

Condemnation for the ads came swiftly, with the government standing accused of sexism and misogyny.

One critic asked: "How will dressing up and putting on makeup at home [prevent] Covid-19? Pray, tell?"

Another asked: "How did we go from preventing baby dumping, fighting domestic violence to some sad variant of the Obedient Wives Club?"

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Nisha Sabanayagam, a manager at a Malaysian advocacy group, said: "These posters promote the concept of gender inequality and perpetuate the concept of patriarchy."

Following the criticism, the Women's Affair's Ministry apologised and told Malaysians that they would "remain cautious in future".

They defended their intentions, claiming the ads were aimed at "maintaining positive relationships among family members during the period they are working from home".

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website