A religious scholar from Indonesia has urged the Malaysian authorities to follow Jakarta's lead of legislating a new law which effectively criminalises marital rape. The Indonesian Parliament passed the new legislation on Sept 15.

Husein Muhammad, the headmaster of a religious boarding school in West Java, told malaysiakini that if more Muslims in Malaysia are made aware of the serious violence committed in some cases of marital rape, they would be less reluctant to criminalise such forms of domestic abuse.

More popularly known as 'Kiyai Gender' (Gender headmaster) for his advocacy of women's issues, Husein said although Islamic religious texts frowns upon negligence of either spouse's sexual needs, many Muslims need to address the grevious bodily harm perpetrated by husbands who violently force themselves on their wives.

"When a wife refuses a husband's overtures, she is regarded by many to be committing nushuz (rebelliousness), but how many Muslims have seen the grievous harm of forced sex on a wife who has just delivered a child?" he asked.

Husein, who is in Malaysia for a week's lecture/study tour organised by Muslim women's advocacy group Sisters in Islam (SIS), was briefing reporters in Petaling Jaya today on his involvement with women's advocacy groups Rahima and Puan Amal Hayati. He has also been the headmaster of the West Java school since 1983.

He said those who dismissed efforts to criminalise marital rape as a western or un-Islamic approach to the issue should instead consider it as a humanitarian concern that needed to be looked through the lens of "human compassion".

Jail or fine

"Malaysia should follow the example of the Indonesian Parliament which three weeks ago passed laws punishing domestic sexual violence, conditional upon the availability of a witness (including the victim) as well as evidence of the abuse," he added.

Husein was referring to new laws enacted on Sept 15 that punishes, among other crimes, non-consensual sex with 4 to 15 years' imprisonment or a fine of Rp12 million to Rp300 million (RM5,000 to RM125,000).

The law, which is scheduled to be signed later this year by the president, also states that those guilty of sexual violence resulting in the death of a foetus or damage to the victim's sexual organs would be punished with 5 to 20 years' imprisonment or Rp25 million to Rp500 million (RM10,500 to RM209,000).

Husein also defended current efforts to criminalise marital rape, which has been opposed by groups in Malaysia who deem it as un-Islamic and difficult to enforce, as measures to protect women's reproductive rights and health.

Labelled deviationist

Husein who studied in Egypt's renowned Al-Azhar University is among an emerging group of Indonesian scholars who, although having undergone training in the traditional institutions of Islamic education, have been active in calling for decisively more progressive or liberal interpretations of Islam.

The author of three major works on women's issues, Husein who has been labelled deviationist by more conservative groups, told reporters that though Islam teaches equality of men and women, it was the social structures created by men that perpetuated and sanctioned violence and discrimination against women

An uproar ensured last month from some quarters opposed to a proposal by the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) that marital rape be categorised as a crime punishable under the Penal Code.

Suhakam chairperson Abu Talib Othman had made the recommendation on Aug 20 in a paper presented to the parliamentary select committee on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and Penal Code.

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