At about 12.00pm to 2.00pm today, activists from KataGender and Food Not Bombs Kuala Lumpur as well as Tilted World contributers (not me - I had an exam :-P) marched from Ampang Park LRT station to KLCC to protest against the fatwa on tomboyism.
From Malaysiakini:
About a dozen protesters marched through Kuala Lumpur denouncing the recent ‘discriminatory’
fatwa(religious decree) against tomboys.
Those involved were from two groups Katagender (which promotes gender sensitivity) and Food-not-Bombs, and included several men.
Armed with a large banner which read Lawan semua fatwa menindas perempuan (Oppose all fatwa which oppresses women)”, the protestors marched from the Ampang Park LRT station to the vicinity of KLCC.
Other small posters read ‘Tomboy is not a crime’ and ‘Stop controlling clothing and thoughts of the rakyat’.
As the protesters marched, they chanted slogans such as “Stop oppression against women” and “Short hair, who cares?” which drew the attention of curious lunch-time onlookers.
The group gathered briefly near the Jalan Ampang entrance to KLCC to chant slogans and distribute leaflets but dispersed after security personnel told them to leave.
One leaflet, citing information available on the Internet, explained the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation.
Another was an open letter to the National Fatwa Council. Among other aspects, it decribed the fatwa as discriminatory. The letter will be posted as an online petition, to gather public support.
Dressing and sexual orientation
On Oct 23, the council had ruled that Islam is against tomboys - specifically females displaying masculinity. It claimed that tomboys are inclined to behave like men and indulge in homosexuality.
Spokesperson for the protesters Lee Wei San said that the council’s decision was ill-conceived.
“What we are saying is that gender expression, identity and orientation are different things altogether,” said Lee.
She said that women should have the right over how they want to express themselves or dress.
“Why is the woman’s body always the battlefield of society’s morality?”
Another member of the group, who requested anonymity, said when contacted: “We got together because we feel strongly about the issue, even though the majority of us are not tomboys.”
Sign the peitition ‘Open Letter To The National Fatwa Council and Malaysians‘ here.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
As far as I seen, the demostrators are all non-Moslem. Do you know that fatwa has nothing to do with non-Moslem and have you read on The Star today that the fatwa hasnt been decided yet?
November 8th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
For your information, arc, Muslims took part in the protest as well. (Were you there during the scene of the protest?) Whether or not the fatwa has been passed is immaterial, and what matters is that the ruling was ill-considered and unjust. And, you don’t have to be Muslim to recognise discrimination. Hope this helps.
November 9th, 2008 at 6:32 am
I was talking about Moslem who devoted himself to the religion. Not the kind of whom doesn’t pray and even cover their head. Of course I wasn’t in the scene.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:16 am
By “the kind whom doesn’t pray and even cover their head”, are you implying that they are less religious than other Muslim women just because they were courageous enough to stand up against an unfair ruling?
And how do you know that they don’t cover their heads? Or that they don’t pray? As you said, you weren’t at the scene - so where did you get such detailed knowledge of the participants at the protest?
(by the way, you used the word “himself” in the previous sentence - are you implying that Muslim men are required to cover their heads as well?)
November 9th, 2008 at 10:28 am
look, i agree that you dont have to belong to certain group to do do something against discrimination. i m really sick and tired of this silly theory.
and you dont have to be at the protest to extend your solidarity or to feel like you are part of it. this is another thing which is wrong with us. we feel that if we dont go to a certain protest or action, we are less important or whatever. there are so many things that you can do. get people to sign the petitions, write about it, do whatever!
and you have to bear in mind that protesting is not a “culture” here and people are afraid of the consequences-getting arrested, appearing in the press, and so on. and this is not a small issue. people dont talk about lgbtiq rights and issues out in the public. hell, they dont even talk about womyn’s rights! there are still men and womyn out there who think patriarchy is fine and being passive and submissive is okay.
anyways, what i m trying to say here is you can participate in different ways and there so many things that you can do get people involved and empower them. if we feel that our lgbtiq frends or muslim sisters need to be empowered, then do something about it! dont criticize the action and find fault in it, when thats over and done with. only then can you get more people involved the next time.
hmmm…..
November 9th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Protesting and actually voicing out these issues, trying to raise awareness and the like actually gets those patrol cars chasing after us. Guards yelling, people panicking - makes you wonder what all that chaos is about. It’s not like we were even wielding guns, or anything.
People have the gall to say, nonchalantly, that this is Malaysia and not US - thus we are actually stupid for trying to demonstrate or protest against something that is purportedly inevitable.
Says who, though? If we get enough people to talk about it and be dissatisfied about it, the higher-ups might actually be driven to THINK about it and wonder why people are protesting, etc. Which might then lead to them reversing the decision when they start using their brains, for once - instead of just senselessly putting women down in every possible way, just because they can.
Do we have to be Muslim to recognise that a fatwa that runs along those lines is plain unfair for women? To generalise that way and discriminate against a woman’s choice of dressing?
Quite a large amount of Muslim Malay women will be forced to be ‘okay’ with such rulings given how they’re, in a lot of ways, dominated by their male counterparts in their religion and race. It IS patriarchy, in its purest form, when they actually even THINK of passing fatwas like these.
You just have to ‘bow down’ to the male supremacy in this country. There’s no other way, for them, because the women believe themselves too weak, too overpowered by the men. They believe that they have no right to say anything. That they will be discriminated, criticised, condemned - even branded traitors of their own race, who knows? - if they actually stood up for their rights.
And that is honestly really quite depressing. Malaysians on the whole are just cowards - perfectly content with the state of affairs as it is, as long as they themselves are largely unaffected for the most part. And they can be very, very selfish. That has to change. We can’t just complain all the time and whine - we have to actually take the initiative to do something, and be active in trying to voice out and convey our message to the public or the authorities that this kind of discrimination is unacceptable.
To echo a dear family friend of mine on this topic:
Feminists have questioned why the national fatwa council does not pass a fatwa on violence against women.
Why?
These particular fatwas and violence against women are actually more similar than we think they might be. They’re both expressions of male dominance over women - a semblance of control, if you may.
Passing and approving these rules and edicts on how women dress, what they are allowed to do… it has NOTHING to do with spirituality, for the most part. It’s all about control, and power.
So, how can the fatwa council pass a fatwa on something they may condone i.e. violence against women?
November 10th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
i am a muslim and i am hijabbed since i am twelve and i am sick with this fatwa (even if it has not been decided yet).
i went to a religious school for three years learning several hundreds hadiths and memorizing several hundreds quranic verses but i don’t remember i ever learned about a specific hadith or verse that rules out which behavior is specifically constituted for boys or girls.
come on guys, please stop manipulating holy religious scripture as a pretext for your patriachal agenda.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I have been wondering a lot these days on why so many things are not “fatwa-ed” in Islam. I still see Muslims gambling in race courses and four-digit numbers everywhere, and all of them even smoke, and all of them are yelling foul languages. I believe Islam is a beautiful religion, but sadly it is mis-used by men. Fatwa is not of God, it is created by men. It is because it is of men, all countries have different fatwas. In Iraq you can be stoned to death being a woman wearing make-up or hair uncovered. Why is this not in Malaysia? (Or is it going too?) And in Iran, sex- change surgeries are legal by Islamic standards. So why not Malaysia? (Now, now. Why the naughty National Fatwa Council wants to ban it in 1983?). Another problem from our side is that the message is not getting across. It is about humanity. It is about dignity. It is about women. They are pushing all the arguments into religious ones. But they are the same smoking extremists.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:37 am
The issue of debate and protest over the fatwa isn’t about non-muslims fearing that we can’t do what we want to do. It’s the issue of protecting certain sectors of society who are unfairly repressed without being understood enough. Just as much as you claim that there are reasons behind the fatwa, there are also reasons behind people’s decision to dress up in certain ways. Why should one truth be greater than the other?
A rereading of the Quran and the Sunnah, as is done by Asma Barlas and Kecia Ali, shows us that the interpretation of Islam today, and the decisions made based on them, is constricted to very few people, from very limited backgrounds. Women, for one, are usually excluded although this did not use to be the case. (cf Aisyah, Fatimah, Hafsa).
I question the defense of certain fatwas on the basis that they are decided upon by highly religious and scholarly men, and then not explaining why the decision has been made that way. What happened to Ijtihad and Ijma? Why are fatwas being decreed without any evidence of critical reasoning and consensus?
November 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am
please re-sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/fnbnkg/petition.html
November 12th, 2008 at 11:55 am
i think its about time that we stood up and said enough is enough! stop patriarchy and stop using the name of Islam to justify things and help you control the society.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:45 am
When doctors harm ppl; with their decisions, they can b sued for malpractice. So i guess Muslims should have d right to sue any religious leaders when their conclusions harm ppl.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:38 am
You all stupid non muslim do not understand our religious. In Islam Man also can not wearing like a woman. So stop critic our riligious. You all can go to hell hereafter. All of you is like a BASTARD when interfere other religious whithout any knowledge about it.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:43 am
To all non muslim, please take not that this matter is only for a muslim. If you are KAFIR, so this fatwa is do nothing harm to you. If you are Muslim and still against the fatwa, so yoau also can go to hell hereafter. Follow all your KAFIR comunity.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Please don’t misrepresent your religion. Islam doesn’t give any one the right to judge who goes or doesn’t go to hell. Only God makes that judgment.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Muslimat, please read our article “It’s Not About Non-Muslims Against Non-Muslims” and understand that this was NEVER a religious issue. And do be mindful of your tone. If you wish to be representative of Islam, then embody Islam’s preaching of peace and gentleness.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 am
nakedwriter, well argued n wellthought. As a faithful muslim, i believe it will b only God can reward belief or punish disbelief. There4, we human beings, while we r on this earth must have d humility NOT to play God wit each other.
December 25th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Islam has a a clear set of rules as in the Koran and also the Hadith.What is not to be condoned are all the major sins so for those who swear,drinks, smokes, indulge in vice and hedonistic lifestyle then they will be judged during Judgementg Day yet Allah will forgive (insyallah) for those who repent because it is never too late to change.Only God decides who goes to hell or heaven eternally thus as a Muslim,I can say that in Malaysia others IRREGARDLESS of their faith indulge in immoral activities vice versa. I have heard sneering comments from those who say that MANY Muslims in Malaysia do not pray, fast ecetera but it does not mean a large majority as they do not understand or practise Islam in general but only on name.Which also means others who are not Muslims can indulge? Adam and Eve created the generation of ALL MANKIND so that they can produce more offspring thus creating the continuance of the human race. All the main religion in this planet advocates a good way of life but not when there is that queer lifestyle as man and woman are created for each other.I apologise for this and also with regards to the fatwa as it is again to be decided by those who are entrusted with the teachings of Islam and not to discrimanate.
December 25th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Norhisham Othman, are you saying mAn and woman or mEN and women? That means you encougare poligamy? And are those “entrusted” with the teachings of Islam human, or have they obtained some God-like status for them to judge based on personal bias what is haram and what is not (because some of the fatwas in the world are really different with various countries)? And please, I am confused. What do you mean by the queer “lifestyle”? Sleeping? The clothes you wear? The car you drive? Types of exercises? Because I am sure my lifestyle is hardly any different than yours.
By the way, somethings that is the “clear set of rules as in the Koran and also the Hadith” also includes killing infidels. What are infidels? You should know. So are you going to kill every non-Muslim now? Heck, it also teaches that the earth is flat. Do you believe it? Please do not pick and choose Quranic verses to satisfy your bias. As you said, religion teaches all to be good. What have we done to harm you? Simply by existing?
“Adam and Eve created the generation of ALL MANKIND so that they can produce more offspring thus creating the continuance of the human race.”
So tell me, how did Adam and Eve “reproduce”? Were they married? And how did their children “reproduce”? And what about some poor men out there that cannot make their wives pregnant? Or women who are born unable to give birth to children? Are they lesser in God’s eye because they cannot reproduce?
You have no right to judge another human being. You however, have the right to question, as I did. And you also have the right to look at your own sins and not judge others. Who are you to assume when you are not born a queer?