COMMENT The police investigation into assemblyperson Chong Eng’s statement on a Friday sermon prepared by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) can only pose question marks on the gender mainstreaming policy of the government.

May I also dare to refer to the director-general of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) who said that Chong Eng has “run out of ideas”, and to the the Selangor mufti’s claim that a disobedient wife can, as the last resort, be beaten, in the same light?

Chong Eng, a former MP and a Penang state executive councillor now, has been involved in and has been supportive of the efforts of Malaysian women in our campaign to end violence against women (VAW). That campaign went as far back as 1984, at a public workshop in Petaling Jaya.

The issues included rape and domestic violence. It took 10 years for the passing of the Domestic Violence Act, 1994. It was the then Wanita Umno leader and then minister of national unity and social development, Napsiah Omar, who moved the legislation.

It was a momentous time for Malaysia. This 1994 law was the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. Women’s groups in the region made study visits to Malaysia for years afterwards on the campaign strategies by our women’s groups.

The women’s rape reform recommendations in the law were not fully accepted but some changes were made to the Penal Code.

Myths on women’s dressing

In that long, arduous campaign, we included a public education strategy on VAW. This included the debunking of myths around women’s bodies, such as:

“If you are not covered (clothed), you will invite rape.”

“If you dress sexily, you will invite rape.”

However the fact is that children and women who are clothed, and Muslim women who are covered in headscarves, have not been spared from the violence of rape.

Chong Eng properly cited the case of Noor Suzaily Mukhtar in 2000. In the period of the campaign, there was a case of a Muslim child who was raped and strangled with the headscarf she had worn.

It is a myth that women and children are some kind of subhuman, non-person, a thing for the possession of a male to do as he pleases.

I am not talking about all men, just men who have this perception of women and people who have this perception that covering up will protect you from rape and violence. There was no issue on how women choose to dress.

We spoke to leaders of trade unions, journalists and lawyers on this matter. We went to schools, talking to students and teachers, we had public workshops on Mothers' Day, International Women’s Day, Malaysian Women’s Day - every opportunity to include all and sundry. We lobbied political parties, the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and of course, the ministry in charge of women’s affairs.

Muslim lobby to oppose draft law

We then had word that there was a “Muslim lobby” lobbying the AG to oppose the proposed law on domestic violence. The women’s groups were divided.

If this lobby persists, then we will have one law for non-Muslims, and Muslim women can fall back to whatever maybe in the state law, with its weak enforcement on family violence, since the police (being a federal force) are too busy with criminals.

The “too busy with criminals” statement was in fact made at a meeting with personnel from Bukit Aman, the federal police headquarters. They do not see family violence as a crime. This is what the proposed law sought to remedy, but Muslim women will be left out in the cold.

Would the campaign be split by this development? I recalled that I felt betrayed by campaigners who insist that, in the Malaysian context, non-Muslims have no say on the matter and that this is up to the Malays and Muslims to address that lobby. A wake-up call to a novice feminist, naïve to ethno-religious politics in Malaysia!

No stone unturned

Since coming this far, why leave a stone unturned?  As part of the new outreach, a study group was formed  to address the Muslim  interpretations of the rulings on wife beating and the covering-up of women to protect themselves. Where there is a will, there is a way and as a believer, I would include, guidance.

The work on re-reading the textual sources gave Malaysian women a new confidence in moving the campaign forward with new insights. The views of the 7th century Arab scholars of women in their own cultural context, and Arab customs, are often set out in these opinions and accepted as infallible. The core message or world view of the text will provide a clearer direction. And in a democracy, ideas are contested and the better argument should prevail.

 

Women are not responsible for rape, they are not responsible for violence done to them. If, in any way, an act of violence falls under any category defined in the new law, it is a crime and it must be punishable.

No one deserves to be beaten

The campaign call, “No one deserves to be beaten” was reinvigorated. The 1993 UN Conference on Human Rights, which emphasised that “Women’s rights are human rights”, added strength to this.

Malaysian women won their case and one law came into being. We lost the lobby to define marital rape as a crime. That was not just from the Muslim lobby to the attorney-general. You know who you are.

Surely it is no longer the role of women’s groups today to lock horns with government bodies and civil servants on these matters. Groups are not government-funded. It is up to the appropriate ministries to ensure that the milestones are not eroded.

Has the women’s ministry developed a gender mainstreaming policy, inter-ministries, including the Prime Minister’s Department? Is the history of the Domestic Violence Act and rape laws known to civil servants involved in expounding and implementing Islamic legal principles and religion?

Have there been concerted engagements with religious bodies on re-readings of textual sources that do not discriminate women?

Chong Eng was just reminding us of the 10-year struggle for men to respect women.

SALBIAH AHMAD is a lawyer. She pays tribute here to the late Nik Noriani Nik Badli Shah who passed away, on the second day of 2015. Nik Noriani was tasked to draft the Domestic Violence Act when she was in the AG Chambers. She left for further studies upon the passage of this bill into law, and joined the women’s movement to better women’s rights and end discrimination.