Gender equality: 'PAS must not forget its promise'

PAS must uphold its promise to promote gender equality, said Norhayati Kaprawi, public relations officer of Sisters in Islam (SIS).
MCPX

She said this in reply to a recent spate of criticisms that have been hurled at the women's movement by PAS Youth, especially for organising a Musawah conference entitled 'Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family' last week.

PAS Youth had claimed that SIS had no right to bring up sensitive issues such as polygamy, divorce, consent of marriage, age of marriage and child custody, among others, as they did not posses the relevant qualifications.

Its president, Riduan Mohd Noor, had also challenged local Muslim organisations to come forward and protest against the conference for destroying the dignity of Malays by promoting ‘liberal' Islam.

"I am certain that when PAS agreed to join Pakatan Rakyat, they also agreed to the Pakatan manifesto, which surely contained promises to defend justice and equality for all Malaysians, as well as being open to diversity and dialogue," Norhayati said when contacted by Malaysiakini yesterday."

PAS must be answerable to its electorate if it is willing to uphold all these principles. By issuing such statements, does that mean that PAS does not support justice and equality? What of their promises to promote progressive and inclusive politics?"

Musawah is a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. It was initiated in 2007 by SIS and a committee of Muslim activists from 11 countries as a coalition to advocate equality within the Muslim family, especially the rights of Muslim women.

The conference, held at the Prince Hotel from Feb13 to 18, was attended by over 250 activists, Muslim scholars and social policy experts from 47 countries, including Amina Wadud, Ziba Mir Hosseini, Muhd Khalid Masud and Siti Musdah Mulia, as well as non-Muslim activists such as Cassandra Balchin.

Liberal Muslim agenda

Meanwhile, the Ulama Association of Penang (PUMPP) has slammed Musawah for disseminating a liberal Muslim agenda in Malaysia and disputing Islamic principles especially Syariah law, and being inaccessible to non-invited members.

Norhayati disputed this, saying: "Naturally, we would invite groups and organisations whom we have worked with for the last few years and who share our objectives and aspirations."

In addition, we invited numerous Muslim scholars, including a local mufti, as well as officers from Jakim and other local religious departments."

As for groups like PUMPP, it was clear from the beginning that they would not engage in open dialogue with us. However, that does not mean that we do not have separate dialogues with them."

In her opening address, SIS president Zainah Anwar called for more of such conferences, saying they would remedy injustices towards Muslim women."

Hopefully, Musawah will emerge as a global movement that will lead the Muslim world in becoming aware that the entitlement of women to justice and equality is not something that is foreign to Islam but in fact, central to its religious traditions", added Zainah.

Special advisor to the prime minister in women's affairs and social development, Sharizat Abdul Jalil, who also attended the conference, expressed confidence that the current administration under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his successor Najib Abdul Razak was willing to listen to the views of different groups.

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上个星期，在马来西亚有一个很重要的国际会议，由很多国家的学者、穆斯林妇女运动工作者、律师等来马来西亚讨论关于穆斯林妇女平等权益的问题 -- 当中当然还有讨论关于如何可以更有效的争取穆斯林妇女在婚姻中的平等权力。

当时，我在当今大马的马来文版本，看到了回教党青年团及一些保守父权回教组织警告回教妇女姐妹组织不要主办这样的活动，说他们的叛徒，说这样的活动会破坏家庭体系，让道德沦丧

我记得我将他传给了做某国会议员助理的朋友，问你的老板要不要回应一下

看到他们说要拉大队示威抗议，将回教姐妹组织说成怪物，就不爽 --- 虽然我知道，这不是第一次了。因为，当一个组织要挑战制度、权威，就会变成妖怪，这是不变的定律

没有加入妇女援助中心，接触Islamic Family Law (amendment2005)、穆斯林的妇女朋友，回教姐妹组织，看过一些关于回教家庭法的书，我不知道原来在我们的国土上有很多长期被压迫的人，而压迫他们的是利用诠释宗教对于某一方有利的条款，而长期不平等的对待这些朋友

不知道哪里看过这样的文章，有很多穆斯林的妇女觉得，其他宗教的妇女比较幸运。的确，当法庭下判决的时候，虽然对于妇女仍然有很多不公平的，但是比较起回教法庭，是比较好的

当Islamic Family Law修正法案于2005年通过（最后被展延实行），我曾经向一些朋友们讨论过这个课题。但是，当时朋友们的反应不热烈 --- 都觉得我很奇怪

可是我心里是这么想的，即使可能和我没有直接的关系，当我知道有那么一个对某些朋友会造成更大的伤害、压迫的法令要实行，我不能事不关己吧 --- 虽然，我不够资格讨论这样的题目，但是我希望我的朋友可以对这样的题目多一份了解，了解会让我们比较谅解，对吧

SIS的Yati在妇女候选人运动的e-group转发了很多很好的文章，待我有空将之放在这个部落格，我们一起学习成长.