Zainah Anwar, the co-founder of the SIS, believes that Islamic feminism in Malaysia still has a long way to go
Zainah
Anwar, the co-founder of Sisters In Islam (SIS), believes that Islamic feminism
in Malaysia requires more public awareness and pressure before it can begin to
influence national policy.
She
said it was unrealistic to expect the government to be solely responsible for
improving Muslim women's rights, and that creating connections with other
women's rights organisations was crucial.
The
key for us is to figure out how to make it politically costly for people in
positions of power to continue to disregard our demands.
"That's
why the emphasis must be on knowledge, on building knowledge, on building
voices, on opening up a public space for debate," she remarked at Temu
House on June 7 during a SIS event for the introduction of Ziba Mir-book
Hosseini's Journeys Toward Gender Equality in Islam.
Zainah
continued to emphasise the need for alliances, saying that organisations are
critical to laying a solid foundation for a durable reform movement.
"That's
why you can't do it alone," she added. ‘You need an organisation that will
back you every time you're attacked, and you need to establish alliances so
that they will stand with you when you're attacked.’
Meanwhile,
Ziba stressed the importance of the means to an end, which she outlines in her
book.
‘The
means by which we achieve our goal are just as significant as the goal itself,’
she stated.
Ziba
addresses gender equality as a component of current notions of justice in her
book, and she challenges patriarchal interpretations of Sharia.
Through
thought-provoking discussions with six influential Muslim intellectuals:
Abdullahi An-Naim, Amina Wadud, Asma Lamrabet, Khaled Abou El Fad, Mohsen Kadivar,
and Sedigheh Vasmaghi, she analyses how egalitarian gender legislation might be
developed from within the Islamic legal system.