1st Edition

Feminism and the Women's Movement in Malaysia An Unsung (R)evolution

By tan beng Hui, Cecilia Ng Copyright 2006
240 Pages
by Routledge

240 Pages
by Routledge

240 Pages
by Routledge

Combining both personal and academic insights into the Malaysian women’s movement, this study provides an in-depth account of the multiple struggles of the Malaysian women’s movement, from securing gender equality in a patriarchal society to achieving unity among members of a multi-ethnic society that are further divided along class and religious lines. Most historical versions of national... Read more

1.  Introduction  2. Accommodating Feminisms: The Women’s Movement in Contemporary Malaysia  3. The Violence Against Women Campaign: A Never-ending Story?  4. An Unholy Alliance: Women Engaging with the State  5. Negotiating Political Islam: Women in Malay-Muslim Organizations  6. Muted Struggles: Challenges of Women Workers  7. Querying the Forbidden Discourse: Sexuality, Power and Dominance in Malaysia  8. Conclusion  Appendix A: Key Members of the Joint Action Group against Violence against Women (JAG-VAW)  Appendix B: The Women’s Agenda for Change  Appendix C: As Malaysians and as Women – Questions for our Politicians and a Manifesto For The ‘90s

Biography

Cecilia Ng is an independent researcher and women's rights advocate. She has taught at Universiti Putra Malaysia , the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, where she served as editor of the AIT-based Journal of Gender, Technology and Development, as well as at the Science University of Malaysia. Cecilia has conducted research and published widely on gender, development and work and is active in women’s groups in Malaysia where she is involved in research, training and advocacy on advancing the women’s movement in Malaysia.

Maznah Mohamad is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore. She is also author of the book The Malay Handloom Weavers: A Study of the Rise and Decline of Traditional Manufacture (1996) and co-editor of Feminism: Malaysian Critique and Experience (1994).


tan beng hui is trained in political economy and economic history. She has been involved in the Malaysian women's movement since 1990, during which time she has tried to put sexuality rights on the agenda of local women's groups. She worked for an international women's human rights NGO based in Kuala Lumpur for four years before returning to local activism. Currently, she is involved in organising Fiesta Feminista, an initiative to popularise feminism in Malaysia.