A group of prominent women activists will gather in Kuala Lumpur next month to protest against the toxicity of Malaysian politics.

Among the participants slated to take to the streets on Sept 10 will be former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's wife Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah and G25's Noor Farida Ariffin.

The group would gather at the Maju Junction shopping mall at 5pm and march to the Sogo shopping complex.

“Today, violence and threats against individuals, as well as racist and sexist language, have become prevalent among our leaders.

"We demand that all such unacceptable behaviour and conduct cease immediately and that the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and rule of law be restored in full, so as to address such unhealthy trends," Noor Farida told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

She said that the rally was not being held by any organisation, and that all the women activists endorsed the rally in their personal capacity.

Parliamentarians throw sexist language

Noor Farida also noted that some parliamentarians were setting bad examples by using sexist language and degrading women.

The problem is that, she said, these parliamentarians do this with impunity and no action seemed to be taken against them.

"Also, there is the trend of criticising Muslim women for not wearing tudung, wearing skirts that are too short and the criticising of women’s bodies.

"The politicians and our government seem to be encouraging the politicising of Islam, but unfortunately, the kind of Islam that they seem to be espousing is very narrow-minded and conservative, focusing only on petty matters, like on whether women should be covered up...

"Things they don't focus on is the beauty of Islam. Islam upholds justice, mercy, compassion and kindness, but they just focus on punishment," Noor Farida added.

Women should speak out

Siti Hasmah said that as a woman, she always followed her husband, going here and there, including attending political activities, and she had seen many events turned to toxic politics.

She said women, who comprise more than 50 percent of the country's population, could actually play a better role than men.

"We are unhappy with today's politics, which has turned to violence, and we can see and hear about what is happening in Parliament, and so on.

"Malaysian women should take note of what is happening in our country now and they should speak out and show their rejection of toxic politics.

"Malaysian women must wake up and must use our votes to get a free, stable and peaceful country for us and our descendants," Siti Hasmah added.