‘There's no such thing as equality’: Religious and gender justice discourses among Malaysian men

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 19: Culture and Civic Participation

Abstract

Malaysia constitutes a site of cultural contestation over gender norms, masculinity, and what gender justice within an Islamic framework looks like. As with many Muslim-majority societies, women are viewed as cultural symbols of morality and religious purity. This paper is part of an ongoing dissertation project on men’s involvement in gender justice advocacy in Malaysia, entailing 50 interviews with men both within and outside advocacy spaces. This paper explores whether men in Malaysia who espouse feminist values also adopt interpretations of faith traditions that contribute to their gender egalitarian beliefs. There is a significant degree to which men reference religion and religious discourse, especially Islam, whether they are involved in gender justice advocacy or not. For many Muslim men, Islam serves as a guidance for what a just and gender egalitarian society ought to look like. Religion provides a similar source of guidance for non-Muslim men. Secondly, institutionalized Islam and religious conservatism, due to their espousal of traditional gender ideology, are cited by some men as a barrier to the advancement of gender rights. On the other hand, a minority of men marshal religious arguments to problematize the term “equality” since religion already guarantees justice for women within their ‘roles’ as women. This paper informs not just scholarship on men’s involvement in gender justice advocacy around the world, but expands our understanding on how men seek to improve gender relations in a society where gender is a battleground for larger debates about cultural and religious authenticity.

Author

• Imad Alatas, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill