Dr Azly Rahman in his lengthy and rather verbose letter was essentially dismissing Western-style feminism and unfairly belittling Malaysian women writers to this forum who desire equality by accusing them of practicing this "Western illiberal democratic ideology" and responding "emotionally".

Azly discusses correctly the woman's role in the Muslim family but doesn't seem to understand that not all women may enjoy this "protected status" or wish to "rely heavily on [the] man as the traditional breadwinner". He seems also to include non-Muslim women in this idyllic family structure and whom he implies are wrong headed in thinking otherwise.

Putting aside all of Azly's fancy pseudo-intellectual rambling, modern Western feminism is not necessarily what he accuses it of being but simply about "choice", period. The choice to seek the life and lifestyle women wants to pursue, be that of single working woman or wife and mother or whatever.

Azly's vision for women removes that choice in favour of a proscribed lifestyle shaped and defined by the men in her life. While this may be the Islamic way, he should understand that this may not be desirable by many women particularly the non-Muslim women with whom he shares his country and perhaps even some of the Muslim women too. Keeping them "down on the farm" so that they will never see "Paree" is not an adequate solution.

He may be correct in his views that poverty and illiteracy and not religion are the cause of women's suffering but limiting a woman's opportunities in life will not be the solution to this problem nor will tying her fate to that of a man or the "kampung" as her only option. Go tell the women of Afghanistan that religion (or at least the way men interpreted that religion) is not a major cause of their poverty and illiteracy and suffering and hear the reply.

By the way, I am not a woman nor am I a radical feminist. I am one of those evil Western humanists that the writer dismisses so readily and cavalierly with his air of smugness and superiority.