WOMEN’S rights activist Meera Samanther left legal practice in 1995, thinking she would have a short break after a difficult pregnancy. “I thought I would volunteer for a while, do some charity work,” she tells The Nut Graph. She started helping at the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)’s shelter and ended up becoming its president, actively advocating for […]
Women's Aid Organisation
Putting a stop to baby dumping
THE most logical and obvious solution to addressing pregnancies out of wedlock – sex education – still seems to escape our decision-makers and politicians, whose suggestions have not just become increasingly ridiculous but also highly punitive.
“Child marriages” just a political game
THE recent announcement by Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam that Muslim children in the state will be allowed to marry just boggles the mind. According to Ali Rustam, who is also Malacca Islamic Religious Council chairperson, allowing child marriages will help curb teenage pregnancy and baby dumping, and prevent pregnant teenagers from […]
The long wait to be Malaysian: The foreign spouse experience
BINA Ramanand and Asha Lim are just two among what is believed to be many more with a predicament because they live in Malaysia. They are foreign spouses married to Malaysians who have waited years and in some cases, decades, for their permanent residency (PR) applications to be approved. As of June 2010, the Home […]
Take back the tech!
Corrected at 3.20pm, 10 Dec 2009 MORE than 30 years ago, a candlelight procession of women marched through the streets of Belgium in 1976 to Take Back the Night. Women asserted their right to move in public places, during the day and particularly at night, without having to fear that they would be harassed, raped […]
Defending a Victorian-era law
A Victorian wedding portrait (Source: Wiki commons) JANAGI and Rajoo were married. After Rajoo left Janagi, Janagi approached Maniam to live with him. Displeased that Janagi was living with another man, Rajoo charged Maniam for “enticing away” Janagi to have “illicit intercourse” with her. The court decided that since it was Janagi “who sought [Maniam] […]
Women – men’s property by law
Corrected on 11 Nov 2009 at 5.10pm RECENTLY, a court case involving Malaysian TV personality Daphne Iking invoked an archaic law that has gotten many parties up in arms. The law in question is Section 498 of the Penal Code. The section deals with the issue of “enticing or taking away or detaining with a […]
WAO: No hidden agenda
KUALA LUMPUR, 17 Sept 2009: The Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) has strongly denied any hidden agenda in calling for concrete action to be taken against the rape of Penan women and girls, as implied by Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. In a statement today, the WAO stressed that it was part of its responsibility as […]
Promises to Penans unkept
“I want to bring women and family issues into the mainstream and I am not apologetic about them. I don’t see them as soft issues and I am proud to advocate them.” Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, campaigning for the Wanita Umno chiefdom before the party’s 59th general assembly. (Source: Shahrizat out to bring change, […]
