Dear all, In light of the current discussions on the tyranny of Hudood laws in Pakistan, I thought I would share with everyone Malaysia's experience.
Currently, the state of Terengganu in Malaysia, which is under the political party of PAS (Islamic Party of Malaysia), has drafted a Hudud law which if passed, will be applicable to all Muslims in the state. The provisions within it is extremely discriminatory against women, and its content very similar to that of Pakistan's Hudood law. The provision for rape states that if the victim is unable to prove that she was raped, she will be charged for qazaf (slanderous accusation) and flogged 80 lashes. An unmarried woman who is pregnant is assumed to have committed zina (adultery), even if she has been raped. The punishment for zina is a 100 lashes if she is unmarried, and if she is married, she will be stoned to death. A woman cannot be a witness. For the crime of rape, the woman is expected to produce four male witnesses who are deemed to be "just" Muslims. It is perverse that the drafters of this bill should regard rape as a woman's defence against prosecution for zina rather than as a violent and serious crime against women. It is even more unjust that the bill places the burden of proof of rape squarely on the woman's shoulders and provide for such barbaric punishments should she fail to do so. As seen by Pakistan's experience, the failure to draw a distinction between rape and zina in the hudud law of many Muslim countries have led to rape victims being charged for zina and qazaf because they are not able to produce the four male witnesses required to prove that they are not consenting parties to zina. These gross abuses are well documented and women's groups in Malaysia have objected to similar discriminatory provisions in the Kelantan Hudud Enactment of 1993 (Kelantan is another state in Malaysia that is under the same political party). And yet, the Terengganu state government has not only chosen to ignore these concerns, but instead included an additional discriminatory provision to flog women 80 lashes if they cannot prove their report of rape. The women's groups in Malaysia are firmly against the enactment of this law, and have come up with memorandums and press statements against its enactment. The law was supposed to be tabled on the 26th of May, but is now planned to be tabled in July due to some amendments to be made. It is still unclear as to what the proposed amendments will be. The Ministry of Women and Family Development in Malaysia have been alerted to the fact of this drafted law, and is currently taking some action, although we are unclear as to specifically what they are. The frightening thing about the whole matter is the ignorance of the general Malaysian public regarding this law, and its implications. The racial and ethnic diversity in the country has led to the general feeling of isolation to this issue, in terms of geography, race and religion. The non-Muslims feel that this law will not affect them, whereas the Muslims may be led to accept this law because one of the main justifications for the law is that it is "Islamic". The women NGOs, especially Sisters in Islam, have organised for a series of newspaper articles featuring this issue, but we are afraid that this is not enough. The dissenting voices could be small (albeit loud), and quickly pushed aside because of the sensitivity surrounding the issue of Islam. Can anyone suggest any other forms of strategy that we can try to bring this issue to the fore, and educate the public on its implications to women's lives and rights to both Muslims and non-Muslims? Thank you. Jaclyn Kee Communications Officer Women's Aid Organisation P.O. Box 493, Jalan Sultan, 46760 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Tel: +60-3 - 7956 3488 Fax: +60-3 - 7956 3237 www.wao.org.my ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
