COMMENT | The irony of jailing Maria Chin
COMMENT | The real story behind the sentencing of Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah is neither the seven-day jail sentence nor the remarks she made in 2019 about a high-profile divorce case.
The more significant story than the one about sending Maria to jail is about the injustice suffered by women who have been failed by our Syariah Court system.
Maria's courage in commenting about Emilia Hanafi's punishment (for rescheduling visitation dates for her children to be with their father) prompted her (Emilia's) former husband to attack Maria with the charge that she had "insulted" the Syariah Court.
However, the move to jail Maria has backfired...
COMMENT | The real story behind the sentencing of Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah is neither the seven-day jail sentence nor the remarks she made in 2019 about a high-profile divorce case.
The more significant story than the one about sending Maria to jail is about the injustice suffered by women who have been failed by our Syariah Court system.
Maria's courage in commenting about Emilia Hanafi's punishment (for rescheduling visitation dates for her children to be with their father) prompted her (Emilia's) former husband to attack Maria with the charge that she had "insulted" the Syariah Court.
However, the move to jail the lawmaker has backfired.
Now, more people will be aware of what Maria was trying to highlight about the Syariah Court system. The main issue being the discrimination of women.
Ironically, it appears that Maria is right - the system does discriminate against women. Jailing her is proof of this.
Jailing the parliamentarian will also remind the world about the high-profile divorce that she alluded to in 2019.
Today, many people will be curious to know the outcome of this divorce, which was initiated in 2016. Did Emilia finally get justice? Or, is she, like her poorer cousins at the other end of the social spectrum, still battling it out in court, still struggling to find justice for her children and herself?
Punishing Maria in this manner will also show that when domestic violence is involved, most ex-wives find that such violence is often overlooked, and sadly, most former husbands will not get prosecuted for beating and abusing their former wives.
How does it discriminate?
The Syariah Court system is man-made. Ask many modern Malay women and they will tell you that it is more suited to an earlier time, that is many centuries ago.
So, how many other ways are women discriminated against?
Here are a few:
In divorce cases, if the husband is not present in court, talak (to divorce/to release) will be difficult to achieve. She cannot move on with her life. If she were to find a new love, she cannot remarry. Some husbands are vindictive and do not want to see their wives find happiness, and thus refuse to divorce her. However, no such issue presents itself to the man as he is allowed to have four wives.
Recalcitrant husbands or fathers who refuse to pay child maintenance and alimony do not get chased to effect payment.
A woman who is raped must find four male witnesses. Who is stupid enough to have four witnesses when committing this vile act? She can have a full busload of women witnesses, but their testimony will not count.
A woman who is raped may get charged for fornication or adultery. She will be whipped, jailed, and fined. The man gets a lesser punishment, if any. Will she be allowed to abort the child if she is found pregnant?
The system of inheritance does not favour the woman when there are no male heirs.
Syariah courts allow property already registered in the wife's name to be transferred to the husband's name under the pretext of 'harta sepencarian', which relates to properties purchased during the course of the marriage.
If the Federal Territory Syariah High Court thought that punishing Maria with a jail sentence would stop her from speaking up about the many problems faced by women in the court system, then they are wrong. This will only motivate her.
The other irony is that jailing Maria will only strengthen the resolve of many Malaysians who will try harder to highlight the suffering of women who were failed by Syariah. They will also demand urgent reform of the Syariah system.
Jailing Maria reinforces what many Malaysians already know but are powerless to change. The suffering of the Muslim single mother is an all-too-common story, which is often largely left untold because it brings shame to the individual, her family, the community, and our institutions.
At the mention of Islam or Syariah, many Malaysians are petrified and refuse to speak up to offer solutions to improve a system, which we all can see favours men, who put the system in place, to begin with.
Jailing Maria has proven her right, because yet another woman is being punished for daring to speak out. Her jail term should be rescinded.
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.
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