{"id":12104,"date":"2015-02-12T17:39:47","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T09:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=12104"},"modified":"2015-02-13T14:56:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T06:56:03","slug":"its-about-rape-not-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/its-about-rape-not-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s about rape, not religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ralvin Manikam<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9165\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Malaysia tries to become a developed nation, recent events remind us that as a nation, we have a long way to go before reaching a mature democracy.<\/p>\n

In a case of “one step forward, two\u00a0steps back”, women’s issues and rights took a backseat when DAP Wanita Chief Chong Eng was questioned by the police yesterday for criticising the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (JAIS) for its chauvinistic take on a woman’s modesty.<\/p>\n

JAIS, in a Friday sermon, had urged women to cover their\u00a0 \u2018aurat\u2019 (modesty) to prevent untoward incidents, such as \u201cevil gazes\u201d and rape.<\/p>\n

The department’s statement ruffled numerous feathers, including Chong, who responded by\u00a0asking for JAIS to be more sensitive and informed about women\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n

Chong Eng\u00a0said that in 2010, 50 percent of rape victims in Malaysia were below the age of sixteen, an assertion that it was not an issue of \u201cwho covers more\u201d but more a result of unequal power relationships where the weak are preyed on.<\/p>\n

\"girl-raped-1\"<\/a>\u201cIn reality, rape involves more complicated dynamics than failure to \u2018tutup aurat<\/em>‘ (cover your modesty). Many\u00a0 clinical and psychological studies have shown\u00a0that power and anger are the most common motivations for rape.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther studies have linked rapists\u2019 behaviours with the intention to humiliate victims \u2013 physically, mentally and verbally,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Some 15 years ago, the tragic murder of computer engineer Noor Suzaily Mukhtar shocked the nation. The 24-year-old was raped and strangled with her own headscarf, and she was dressed modestly in a long skirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMukhtar is just one of many victims\u2013 including infants and children \u2013 who were dressed decently at the time of the assault,\u201d said Chong Eng, who is also the Chair of Penang Women\u2019s Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

She lambasted JAIS\u00a0for comparing a woman\u2019s body to a \u201chouse\u201d and saying that a woman\u2019s aurat<\/em> needs to be covered, just like a house needs to be locked up to stop thieves from breaking in.<\/p>\n

\"dont<\/a>Saying that the \u201csimple analogy\u201d reduced a woman\u2019s worth to that of an object or a piece of meat, it presumes that she is a passive piece of property that can be robbed, taken away, and occupied by force.<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0 criticism was immediately perceived as an insult to religion, and she was hauled up by the police to give her statement.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0the police and JAIS’s reaction to Chong’s statements show an appalling insensitivity and misunderstanding towards rape and towards women.<\/p>\n

Damansara Utama assemblywoman Yeo Bee Yin told The Rocket that there was no statistical proof to back JAIS’s\u00a0claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no empirical evidence to prove that covering women \u2018aurat\u2019 would reduce rape cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Bee-Yin-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She disagrees with the Inspector General of Police\u00a0Khalid Abu Bakar, who condemned Chong Eng in a tweet. Khalid had said Chong Eng\u00a0did not heed the Royal Malaysian Police\u2019s (PDRM) call to refrain from making sensitive comments that touch on religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is about rape and not about religion,\u201d Yeo\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Why oversimplify rape?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Penang Island Municipal councillor Syerleena Abd Rashid told The\u00a0Rocket that JAIS\u00a0was delivering a wrong message to an all male crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not teach men how to respect women instead?\u00a0Why oversimplify rape?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

The JAIS\u00a0sermon was preached in mosques in Selangor, the state which recorded the highest incidents of reported rape in 2013, numbering 293. It is said that for every incident of rape reported, nine others go unreported.<\/p>\n

\"WIRA7575\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a tough time where there is an increase of religious extremism. We need to make sure that evil is not allowed to breed in our country. All rape is crime. It is a vile act to humiliate and hurt women. It isn’t about sex or any gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that JAIS, who comes up with weekly sermons for Muslims has a responsibility to ensure that the right message gets sent across, instead of using \u201cinane and regressive\u201d analogies such as comparing a woman\u2019s aurat<\/em> to an unlocked house.<\/p>\n

Not your moral duty to decide what women wear<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"WIRA0797\"<\/a>Niqab-clad Melati Rahim, who is the author of the book \u201cPelacur Kelas Pertama\u201d (First Class Prostitute)\u00a0says that the idea that covering a woman\u2019s aurat<\/em>\u00a0would prevent rape is\u00a0an assumption made by some.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases we have seen even those who cover their aurat also become the victim of rape\u201d.<\/p>\n

She says that studies done by psychologists would be more helpful instead of opinions based on fallacies. \u00a0Even if these fallacies are preached by religious institutions, such as JAIS, criticism should be allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf religious authorities believe that they are not ma’sum<\/em> (incapable of error and sin), and the issues touched are merely based on their assumptions, I don\u2019t see why we should not allow criticism,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She also says that men do not need to be \u201creminded\u201d about what women should or should not wear, they instead should ask men to avert their \u201cevil gazes\u201d and respect women as prescribed in the Quran.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny thinking being would wonder why women’s issues (about clothing) was preached to men,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Spray-painting-for-Allah\"<\/a>This constant reminder to men about how women should dress in Muslim communities is what drove Tadkiiratul Ummah, a Muslim group in Jakarta Indonesia last December to organise its \u201ccampaign of moralisation\u201d where offenders who dressed \u201cimmodestly\u201d in jeans which were deemed too tight for Islam were inspected and marked with colour spray.<\/p>\n

They had considered it their \u201cmoral duty\u201d to spray women\u2019s pants with indelible paint to shame them in public. These women were also given sarongs <\/em>(loincloth) to wear over their “immodest”\u00a0jeans.<\/p>\n

Melati, who is against moral policing of women\u2019s attire, says that women should be given space to choose and make their own decisions about the clothes they wear.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if a Muslim believes he or she is accountable to God, how can there be accountability when every decision made was forced on her?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Melati says she decided to cover her aurat to break barriers between different races, who are wary of those who don the niqab. It\u00a0had nothing to do with\u00a0preventing rape.<\/p>\n

She, like Chong Eng, Syerleena, and Yeo Bee Yin believe that the factors behind rape should be left to scientific studies and facts, this is a far cry from what the government and authorities seem to endorse, which are the alarm bells of insult and blasphemy. -The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ralvin Manikam As Malaysia tries to become a developed nation, recent events remind us that as a nation, we have a long way to go before reaching a mature democracy. In a case of “one step forward, two\u00a0steps back”, women’s issues and rights took a backseat when DAP Wanita Chief Chong Eng was questioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12139,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12104\/revisions\/12139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}