October - December

INROADS
Quarter 1, 2006
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
Staff Announcements
A big welcome back to Nabila Nasir as our new Project Assistant.
A big welcome back to Kalai, Child minder!
It was a sad farewell to Karen Tan, Project Assistant, who returned to Australia.
A sad farewell to our longtime child minder, Amutha.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
President
Meera Samanther
Vice President
Shanthi Diariam
Hon. Secretary
Mok Chuang Lian
Asst. Secretary
Rozana Isa
Hon. Treasurer
Yeow Ai Lin
Asst. Treasurer
Sharon Hariharan
Comm. Member
Vivienne Lee Iskandar
Musfiza Mustapa
Carol Chin
STAFF
Executive Director
This edition was compiled by Norhajah
Idris and Diya Gosh, Intern. Thank you to
all who helped put this together!!
Ivy Josiah
Finance & Admin Manager
Sharmini Kanesamoorthy
Projects & Admin Manager
Annie Varghese
Projects Assistant
Nabila Nasir
Admin. Assistant
Thillai Nayaki
Accounts & Admin Assistant
Puspawati Ismail
Programme Officer
Vizla Kumaresan
Social Worker Manager
Shoba Aiyar
Social Workers
Jessie Ang
Nazlina Abd Ghani
Saralah Devi
Wong Su Zane
Librarian
Mariam Salleh
Night Supervisor
Normah Md. Noor
Child Social Worker
Daljeen Kaur Jassal
CCC Supervisor
Mary Selina
CCC Child Minders
Vijaya Anumiah
Hanif Nuk’awanah Nuhyi
Kalayivani
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
In Focus
Eye on the Islamic
Family Law
1984 saw the first inklings of a move towards a uniform Islamic Family Law (IFL) for
all states in Malaysia. At the time, Malaysia developed one of the first Islamic laws of
this kind. It was progressive, and was seen as the model Islamic family law of the
Muslim world. Other Muslim countries began emulating our laws when drafting their
respective family law bills.
However, a few amendments made to the 1984 IFL began to mark its movement away
from gender equality. One of these amendments was the validation of divorce and
polygamy contracted outside the court. The five conditions that were necessary in order
for a man to contract polygamy became four. The condition that the standard of living
of the first wife (or existing wives) should not be lowered was removed.
Concurrent to the amendments in the IFL, other changes were taking place that
discriminated against Muslim women. In 2000, a Fatwa regarding EPF and SOCSO
benefits was issued. It said that even though a wife becomes beneficiary to the schemes,
she can only act as the administrator of the estate. The property will be divided
according to ‘hukum faraid’ or inheritance law.
While Muslim women were facing more and more discrimination in the law, Civil laws
were becoming progressive, with a movement towards gender equality. This began in
1976, when a Parliamentary Select Committee was formed to review civil family law.
Out of that came the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, 1976. Later, the
Guardianship Act was amended to allow equal guardianship to booth males and
females. This however, was not applicable for Muslims.
The highly debated 2005 Amendments actually began in 2001. The state of Selangor
was the first to adopt and enforce the law, in 2003. By 2005, 11 states had already
enforced the law. When faced with protest from Sisters in Islam (SIS), state officials all
insisted that the best way to go with the law was to ‘accept it first and amend later’.
It should be noted that SIS had been monitoring all the changes taking place, and
protesting to the various agencies involved. In 2002, they handed a 42-page
memorandum to the various ministries, calling attention to the discriminatory laws and
for the implementation of a Muslim family law based on the principles of equality and
justice.
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
There are many aspects of the amended IFL that are discriminatory towards women.
However, the 5 main contentious issues are:
•
•
•
•
•
To contract polygamy, the man has to show that the marriage is ‘just or necessary’
rather than being ‘just and necessary’,
The division of ‘harta sepencarian’ (matrimonial property), upon polygamy, can be
claimed by ‘any party’. The gender neutral language used here is unfair as the
practice in court makes it easier for men to access the law, rather than women,
The first wife, or existing wives, have to choose between matrimonial property or
maintenance, upon the husbands polygamy,
The husband can stop his wife from dispossessing her property under application for
matrimonial property, and
The right to fasakh1 divorce has been extended to men, on top of their right to talaq1
divorce.
In November 2005, the IFL came up for debate in the Senate, for to be passed in the Federal
Territories. The women senators were lobbied about the discriminatory aspects of the IFL,
and all of then opposed it. However after weeks of lobbying by Sisters in Islam (SIS), and
under immense media attention, the Senators were forced to vote for the IFL, when the party
whip was invoked, despite their opposition to it. Following the controversial voting, the
media was flooded with letters from outraged members of the public wanting to show their
dissatisfaction with the law.
Among the calls from SIS on behalf of the Joint Action Group on Gender Equality (JAG), is
to not gazette the law in the Federal Territory, to place a moratorium on the laws that have
been passed is other states, the formation of a Parliamentary Select Committee to review the
Islamic laws and how they are affecting women, and to redraft the law and introduce a new
Muslim Family Law based on the principles of equality and justice.
It is important for civil society to be vigilant with the developments of the IFL. Lately, there
has been a lot of news in the press regarding the IFL, with a different sort of reaction to it.
Politicians who earlier were did admit to the flaws in the law, and are now claiming that the
law is perfect. It is reactions like this that civil society has to respond to. Write letters to the
printed media. If not a letter, most newspapers now have a section where members of the
public can air their grievances via SMS. A short note outlining your dissatisfaction can speak
volumes.
Source: Sisters In Islam
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
An Ongoing Case
A Muslim Woman’s
Hardship
Zakiah, a twenty five year old Malay woman with a four year old son came to seek shelter early
last year. She is a victim of domestic violence and her husband had pronounced ‘talak’ several
times when she had gone out of the gate of their house or had gone to see her parents after an
incident of abuse.
Background
Zakiah comes from a middle class family and was educated in a religious school. She is a beautiful
petite woman, soft spoken and very articulate in her thoughts. She met her husband at a wedding.
There was mutual attraction and despite protest from both sides, they got married. According to
her, he was a confident person, good looking and attached to a multinational company.
After the marriage, they moved into his parents’ home and she performed all the household tasks.
She was expected to serve his mother, cook and
clean. She had no freedom to do what she
wanted or free time for herself.
Abuse
Just two months after the marriage, the abuse
started. She was quite stunned in the manner it
started. They would check into a hotel, and he
would pick a fight with her for no reason and
then beat her with his bare hands. This became a
norm and as time went by, he was bold enough
to abuse her in front of his parents. She being an
obedient person, would tolerate it and forgave
him. After sometime, she managed to persuade
him to move out of the in-laws house and into
their own. She believed that by doing so, they
would be able to resolve their problems.
However, her problems were far from over. Her husband was hot tempered and got angry for the
slightest reasons. He would often demand that she cut the vegetables the way his mother used to
cut and if she made a mistake of not doing so, he would lash out at her. He would slap her till her
face was swollen, strangle her, kick her and bang her head on the wall. He used to use words like
‘swine’ and ‘bitch’ and other vulgar words that she never heard before.
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
She did not want to leave him, although the thought came to her very often, as she didn’t want
to bring shame upon both families. She was so traumatized by the abuse that she thought she
was loosing her sanity. As time went by, she became an introverted and disorientated person.
Often she would pray to hear an apology from him for his behaviour, but none came. Not being
able to stand the long silence between them, she would be the one apologizing for her actions.
Many a times, he had chased her out of their home but would not allow her go to her parent’s
house. She thought if they had a baby, he would change his ways. However, throughout her
pregnancy, she was abused. After delivery, their sex life changed. He claimed she was not
attractive to him any more.
Realising her family life not improving despite having a son, she became very unhappy and
had no reason to continue their six years of marriage. She decided to confide in her sister about
her predicament. Shocked at what has been happening, her sister began to call numbers that she
found in the papers and came upon WAO’s number. She gave it to Zakiah.
Finding a right time to leave was difficult, as the in-laws had moved in to ‘watch’ over her.
When they were in prayer one day, she took the opportunity to gather a few of her things and
ran out with her son. She made her way to the Jabatan Agama to state her reasons for leaving
home and that her husband had claimed he would divorce her many times before. Then she
came to WAO. She, very reluctantly, made a police report against him regarding the abuse as
she still did not want to bring him shame.
Decision
With the support of her family, she managed to get a lawyer to le for divorce and custody of
their son. This was in late July 2005. Since then she had gone to court more than six times. The
process was long drawn and complicated.
Court System
The first appearance in court was a reconciliation meeting called ‘suluh’, or a mediation
meeting between both parties. When there was no settlement, both had to hire lawyers to fight
their case in court. To do this, she had to go again to court to have a ‘ceremony’ or ‘wakalah’
to appoint her lawyer upon which he was to get another date to x the “hearing date”. However,
when the date came up, the case was postponed.
This was not the end, as the case of the divorce and of the custody were postponed several
times; Reasons for this the judge was on emergency leave, court had a ceremony for
installation of new lawyers, the husband had denied he had uttered ‘talak’ and the judge had
gone to perform his “haj”.
An Explanation
The Syariah court, works differently from civil courts where both divorce and
custody are submitted in one application.
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
An Explanation
The Syariah court, works differently from civil courts where both divorce and
custody are submitted in one application.
She had to open six files to hear her matters: They were 1) confirmation of the
divorce, 2) application for temporary custody, 3) setting aside of the
temporary custody obtained by the husband first, 4) application for permanent
custody, 5) maintenance and 6) obtaining matrimonial property. Every time,
she had a court hearing, queries or to submit documents, she had to pay the
lawyer for appearing in court or the court office.
For six months she endured this and on her final hearing date, she managed to
give testimony about her marriage. Her husband, however, was not present.
Rightly, the judge went on with the case as it had been postponed too many
times. Luck was on her side as his lawyer called for an out of court settlement.
He proposed to give her custody of the son and a house to stay in so that she
could send him to school and he was able visit him whenever possible.
Zakiah was relieved as she felt now she could go on with her life. She hoped
to seal the agreement as soon as possible so her husband will not change his
mind when the time came. Her battle still goes on for the other files…as she
hopes and prays. Court proceedings are still pending and she hopes and prays
for a just solution.
Shoba Aiyar ▪ Social Worker
16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER
VIOLENCE
Get The Knowledge, Get The Power, Keep The Promise
The campaign kicked off on 25th November 2005 at the Berjaya Times Square in
conjunction with the annual global campaign. Joined by friends, affiliates and the media,
each organization gave inspiring speeches on the issues of gender and violence against
women.
The theme for the campaign was “Get the Power, Get the Knowledge, Keep the Promise.”
The star attractions, amongst the strategically placed booths, were Noree, a young upcoming
star who contributes regularly to WAO through a percentage from album sales, and Dina,
first runner up of the first Malaysian Idol.
th
On 26 November 2005, the collective traveled to Kinta City Shopping Centre, Ipoh. Starting
set up at about 9 am, the event ran the whole day greeting warm crowds. A healthy mix of
responses was received from the messages on the sandwich boards donned by the volunteers
of the campaign. Some of brightly painted sandwich boards read, “Women are Social
Subjects, not Sexual Objects”, “One Husband = One Wife” and “Don’t Turn A Blind Eye To
Domestic Violence”.
On the 27th November 2005, Sisters In Islam
and Women’s Aid Organization were back at
Berjaya Times Square setting up information
booths. The crowd, of families and young
teenagers, were out on a Sunday afternoon
stroll, allowing for a relaxed and nonchalant
atmosphere. Though many were intrigued by
stunts pulled by the volunteers lying on the
floor, surrounded by sandwich boards or lining
up wearing the sandwich boards, like at a
protest!
Subang Parade was full of shoppers, perusing
around the flea market outside MPH
bookstore, and the16 Days of Activism
rd
Against Gender Violence continued on the 3
December 2005. A loose coalition of artists
joined the NGO stalls to paint a mural. Calling
themselves KataGender, the collective works
to promote social activism and ultimately
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
A campaign by Women’s Aid Organisation, Sisters in Islam,
Malaysian AIDS Council, Amnesty International, All
Women's Action Society.
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
A Child’s Right to…
Education
The Right to Education occupies a central place in Human
Rights and is essential for development.
Children who are educated will be more productive at home, better paid in the
workplace, better able to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and other diseases
and they tend to assume a more active role in social, economic and political
decision-making throughout their lives.
Sarah, Age 7
Without education, a mother faces
difficulties in protecting her child from
avoidable illness and disease. A father
may unknowingly deny his child a
nurturing and caring environment that
has profound effects on the child’s
ability to develop. A girl who is denied
access to education increases her
vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
A boy may lack a sense of power and
hope for the future.
Children are denied the right to an education due to myriad reasons. Poverty,
issues of safety and security in and around school and disinterest towards subject
matter are examples of why this happens. Without accelerated action to get the
children into schools, global goals to improve the human condition will simply not
be reached.
The public and government both have active roles to
play in realizing the full potential of children.
Education should be free and made available to all.
Improved infrastructure and training for school
personnel should be conducted. The National school
syllabus should be revamped to include subjects that
pertain to the current issues faced by children. For
example, the inclusion of Sex Education should be
recognized. Parents must also play an important role,
as instilling the importance of education begins at home.
5
Hally,
Age
Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) operates a Child Care Centre (CCC) which
provides education and care for children of single mothers. We subscribe to the
tenets of UNICEF’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in which all
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
children have an unquestionable right to an education. The CRC is not limited to
formal education. It also encompasses the development of the child's personality,
talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential.
At CCC, tutorial sessions are carried out alongside programs dealing with issues
such as anger, self-esteem, bullying, abuse, and personal safety. Assistance is
provided in the form of remedial work for children who are unable to read and write,
while the tutorial sessions guide them with their schoolwork. The programs are
developed to provide the children with the vital tools to cope with the challenges
they face in life.
Our children deserve the right to a better lifestyle than the ones they now possess.
We should defend this inherent right and also shelter them. They are the hope of
our future and will soon become the leaders of our countries.
Daljeen Kaur Jassal Child Social Worker
Froggin’
An idea initiated by volunteers turned out to be an unforgettable night for the children. The children
spent the day learning about frogs and at night, viewing them in their natural habitat. At the Child
Care Centre, volunteers assisted the children as they drew the life cycle of the frog and made frog
origami. At night, the children took a walk in the jungle of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia
(FRIM) to view frogs.
A generous donation of tickets provided the
children with an opportunity to attend the Hollywood on Ice show. The show was
attended by current and former residents and was held in Bukit Jalil. Audiences
were entertained with classic songs from Hollywood movies. The children were
mesmerized by the skating skills of the performer.
Inroads, Quarter 1, 2006
people, 3 staff and 2 brilliant volunteers heading off to the sandy shores of Port Dickson for a
few days of fun…. and lots of sun! After a range of “getting to know you games” (which
included dancing on the bus), this great group of energetic kids were clearly ready for any
activity we threw their way!
So, we took them to the TNB Refinery in Port Dickson to test them on their knowledge of
electricity, but they just put on their hardhats and wandered around like true professionals! The
kids put up an equal challenge at the Port Dickson Police Station, as they threw so many
questions at Inspector Zazali, even he was so impressed by the WAO kids that he even
allowed a one off photo shoot inside, on and around the police van with handcuffs!
The focus of the youth camp was to empower the kids in a range of ways and we were
extremely lucky to be joined by Mr Lum Chee Seng, a psychologist who presented a session
on Love, Communication and Relationships. This was truly entertaining as he had the kids
brainstorming, singing, dancing, playing football with an egg and propelling each
other over a piece of string tied to a tree…! The fun continued with psychologist Valerie
Jacques, who had the kids engaged with her session on Sex, Love and Pregnancy. This
activity was based on discussing highly important issues relating to changing emotions, sex,
and safe and appropriate relationships. And….as you can imagine they were extremely
interested and of course further educated!
Even after all the information on careers, life, love, team building, piñata making (and
smashing), bbq-ing, and games, the kids still had the energy to soak up the sun! Burying eachother in the sand on the beach (which was directly across the road) appeared to be a favourite
pastime; this was an act of true bonding with old friends and newfound friends!
Overall the camp was such a great success and we extend our thanks to the volunteers, the
people who were so accommodating in Port Dickson, those who educated and enlightened the
kids…and of course the kids themselves for being brilliant, fantastic and an absolute pleasure
to spend time with!
Jasmine Intern
I hope that WAO will continue to be the ever needed, approachable and respected aid
center and be a leading example for other aid centers in Malaysia. And I hope to lend my
support to the organisation to the best of my ability & availability!