“True Teachings of Islam”: Academic Unfreedom, Muslim Conformity, and Gender Inequality? - Part 3

(*This is a three-part series on academic freedom, interpretations of Islam and Muslim conformity and the Malaysian women’s movement*)

Read Parts I and Part II.

“Nationalism and the struggle for independence raised my consciousness of women’s oppression. Men will not be emancipated unless women are emancipated. Women suffer from the interlocking forces of oppression – feudalism, capitalism and imperialism. Men, outdated cultural practices, religious dictates, and etcetera subordinate women. To uplift the status of women, to achieve equality with men and to liberate women from oppression is a monumental task… ” – Shamsiah Fakeh, Dari AWAS ke Rejimen Ke-10

Malaysia has a rich history of women’s movements that includes formal and informal organising for gender equality, environmental and land rights, legal reforms, political participation, education, sexual and reproductive health, and labour and immigration rights.

These individual and collective mobilisations, which subvert dominant relations of power and re-centre women in society, are tightly woven into the fabric of the nation. Women’s struggles are struggles to remake self and communities, and as such, the nation and its history.

I choose to quote from Shamsiah Fakeh’s memoir to highlight how women’s experiences and lived realities are, more often than not, excluded and erased from “official” accounts of history and national memory.

Shamsiah, a legendary albeit controversial figure, joined the armed struggle against British colonialism and the patriarchal elites who consorted with them. She spent most of her life in exile in China for her political commitment.

A freedom fighter skilled in guerilla warfare, her consciousness of women’s subordination was ahead of her time. In many aspects, she paved the way for contemporary struggles against patriarchy and normative conventions.

Yet, she is written out of Malaysian educational curriculum. What little we hear about her is due to the recent efforts of scholars and research institutes invested in augmenting Malaysian history.

Shamsiah is one of many notable Malaysian women who have contributed to uplifting women’s status through their acts of self-determination and advocacy for gender and social justice.

These women, alongside many organisations today have worked hard to ensure that women’s rights are protected and gender issues remained relevant, if not central to national aspirations.

Sexual harassment, wife battery, rape, equal pay, and Muslim family law are some of the areas where women’s groups have successfully lobbied the state for reform. Women’s groups have also been responsible for training police officers, medical personnel and state officials on gender and women’s issues, such as methods of handling cases of domestic violence and rape.

This social, political and legal advocacy was born out of necessity. It emerged out of the consciousness that women are marginalised because of the intersection of sex/gender, race, class, and religion.

The historically situated conditions of subordination that prompt women into feminist activism are organic and not mere “Western” import.

Sure, feminist practices benefit from the transnational movements of people and ideas, and some of these are adapted to local contexts. But to claim, as Muhyiddin Yassin has done, that the demand for gender rights boils down to “Western liberalism” and awaits instructions from some obscure “Western” benefactor are unfounded.

The Minister’s statement epitomises a particular form of delegitimisation faced by feminist activists in post-colonial nations given the history of the relationship between feminism and colonialism and the trope of “saving” Muslim women. Feminism and colonialism have always made for strange bedfellows.

Their alliance often bears upon indigenised feminist initiatives where the question of cultural legitimacy is almost always inescapable. Feminist advocates are often delegitimised as furthering causes not their own and often conferred derogatory labels to indicate collaboration with “Western” powers.

For instance, in my interviews with religious state officials, it was commonplace to hear members of a group I researched in Kuala Lumpur labelled as agents of Mossad and Bush who aim to infiltrate and destabilise communities of Muslims.

Muhyiddin Yassin’s further claims that the gender rights movement is spreading “new beliefs and ideas that are totally against Islam”.

But he need only to look at the work of organisations such as Sisters In Islam (SIS) that has been instrumental in challenging interpretations and laws that violate Muslim women’s equality and human dignity – e.g., domestic violence – because they contradict Quranic principles.

If adverse to SIS, perhaps the Minister can revisit the history of Islam to learn how the Prophet Muhammad was committed to and initiated gender justice. Many Muslim men of the first umma, while appreciative of the ideas brought by Islam that elevated their status, thwarted the Prophet’s efforts to reform male-female dynamics and held fast to prevalent patriarchal customs.

Despite the reaction of those around him, the Prophet continued to practice gender egalitarian ideals in his household. There is spirited tradition of Muslim women’s participation in the affairs of their community but selective memory has resulted in their invisibility and erasure.

For example, a large number of hadith are attributed to Aisha, the Prophet’s favourite wife, but this is not common knowledge.

The history of Malaysia is closely intertwined with the women who have shaped its trajectory. To deny women’s roles in in anti-colonial, national, and social movements is to deny the gendered maps of social configuration, systems of domination and forms of political belonging and citizenship.

To deny the organic roots of the women’s movements for rights and recognitions is to deny present day women’s struggles the opportunity to learn from experiences, triumphs and failures of the past.

I sincerely suggest that might be a good idea for Muhyiddin, the women’s ministry, and, the Prime Minister and any other ministers who doubt the origin and need for a women’s movement to purchase a copy of Feminism and the Women's Movement in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution.

In fact, make it a mandatory reading for state officials so that embarrassing, inaccurate and insolent statements on the women’s movement may not, hopefully, ever be made again.

In concluding this three-part essay and reflecting on the supposed “true teachings of Islam” I refer to the latest debacle over the usage of Allah as further evidence that the authoritarian state’s vision of Islam is invested in bigotry, inequality, repression and conflict.

None of these is the Islam that I recognise, live and practice. The Malaysian state has continued to infantilise its Muslim citizens and marginalize members of religious minority groups through laws and policies that consistently insult their intelligence, faith, and rights.

This latest contestation does not bode well for multi-confessionalism, multiracial coexistence and equal citizenship status.

If the Allah case makes you sweat and fear state power, you are not alone. In fact, be very afraid of the way that the state is shaping up and polishing its machineries to further extend its reach.

If this recent case is an example of the “true teachings of Islam” and a glimpse of how, perhaps, the grant of RM100 million in research funds to Universiti Islam Antarabangsa can be utilised, then we, Malaysian citizens, need to rise and collectively mobilize against state encroachment of our political will, our right to defend our life choices, our right to form associations, and above all, our right to worship whatever divine entity in which we believe and whatever language we choose without the threat of verbal and physical harassment.

I leave you with the following thoughts by one of my favourite authors of all time, Arundhati Roy:

“At a time when opportunism is everything, when hope seems lost, when everything boils down to a cynical business deal, we must find the courage to dream. To reclaim romance. The romance of believing in justice, in freedom and in dignity. For everybody... if it is justice that we want, it must be justice and equal rights for all not only for special interest groups with special interest prejudices. That is non-negotiable… Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us.” – October 17, 2013.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.