Muslim Women Lose Rights as Islamists Gain in Malaysia

Aida Melly Tan Abdullah was in a marital wilderness for seven years because her abusive husband refused to give her a divorce even after secretly taking a second wife.

She says she lost count of the number of times she was in and out of Islamic courts to fight for her freedom, unable to convince judges she was the aggrieved party -- the victim of a man who regularly abused her verbally and once punched her at a supermarket.

“I was in a state of limbo. ... It was mentally torturous,” recalls Abdullah, 39, who has a 12-year-old daughter.

Abdullah’s case is not unique. Although Malaysia is considered among the most progressive Muslim nations, activists say the country has an outdated Islamic law system for its Muslim citizens that discriminates against women in family and inheritance matters and violates their fundamental liberties under the federal Constitution.

Moreover, women say, the situation is growing worse as religious authorities become stricter and political parties compete for the votes of conservative Muslims.

“Muslim women here are only going backward,” Marina Mahathir, an activist and daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, wrote in a column for The Star newspaper.

Abdullah said her own lawyer, a woman, advised her to return to her husband. In desperation, she studied Islamic law, known as Sharia, to represent herself in court. After a legal battle that attracted nationwide attention, she finally walked out of a Sharia court with a divorce in October 2002.

“Our Sharia system needs to be reformed. Malaysia’s Islamic family laws are not reflective of principles in the Koran that promise justice for women and children,” Abdullah said in an interview.

Religion is part of public life in this Southeast Asian nation, where more than half the 26 million people are Muslims governed by Sharia in personal and matrimonial issues. Chinese, Indian and other minorities fall under civil laws.

Under Islamic law, Muslim men can take up to four wives. Men also have an automatic right to divorce, but women must have their husband’s approval, or must prove their case before a judge if the husband objects.

Activists say the rights of Muslim women took another blow last year when the government proposed to amend the Islamic Family Law to make it easier for Muslim men to divorce their wives while taking a greater share of the couple’s property.

Widespread protests forced the bill to be held for further review.

Critics said the change would promote polygamy, arguing it also goes against the vision of Islam espoused by progressive Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Divorces among Malaysian Muslims are higher than among other communities: 16,509 in 2004, more than five times the 3,291 divorces among the 40% of the population that isn’t Muslim.

Abdullah Mohamad Zin, the minister in charge of Islamic Affairs, said the legislation was still under scrutiny. He refused to comment on activists’ claims that Malaysia’s Sharia system was unfair to women.

Sisters in Islam, a group campaigning for Sharia reforms, says its legal clinic deals with an average of 700 Sharia court cases each year, mostly from women seeking divorces or child support.

Cases are often lengthy because there is no one single set of laws, experts say. Religious matters come under state jurisdiction, leading to different interpretations and enforcement.

For instance, a divorced man can avoid paying child support ordered by a Sharia court by moving to another state. Two states even retain laws that give Muslim fathers the right to marry off a daughter without her consent.

Malaysia also is one of few Muslim countries that still allows men to make divorce pronouncements outside court. A Muslim man can divorce by uttering “I divorce you” three times to his wife. He can even do it by sending a mobile phone text message, although that method has to be confirmed by a court.

Sisters in Islam said the rights of Muslim women had been gradually chiseled away through various amendments to the Islamic Family Law since the 1990s.

“Malaysia once had the most progressive family law in the Muslim world. But now, countries like Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia are way ahead of us,” said the group’s director, Zainah Anwar. “The religious belief that women are being subservient to men is still dominant.”

Mahathir, the former premier’s daughter, said there appeared to be a race between the ruling United Malays National Organization and the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front, known as PAS, to become more Islamic to win Muslim votes.

United Malays is the linchpin of Malaysia’s ruling coalition, which controls the national government and 12 of Malaysia’s 13 states. PAS, which is pushing for implementing Islamic punishments such as amputating the limbs of robbers and stoning adulterers to death, governs one state, Kelantan.

“It’s all politics. There’s a kind of race to see who is more Islamic,” Mahathir said. “It’s unfortunate because the more conservative voice has become louder while the progressive ones find it harder to speak. It’s scary.”