Fatihah Jamhari

Malaysians have never shied away from our abuses on women’s rights. Collectively, as a nation-state, we have failed - almost miserably - when it comes to honoring our female counterparts. Be it in the cases of allowing for substantive equality in representation, recognition or application of women’s rights, Malaysia seems to be lagging behind. Our country is never short of examples when it comes to images after images of manels, we brush aside allegations of oppression against the women in our most vulnerable groups: Orang Asli, refugees, stateless, as well as people with disabilities, and we take exploitation of our women as a normal state of being rather than a cause to be concerned with.  While the incumbent government has tried to change such a sorry state of affairs, regrettably even the government can only do so much. Respecting women is neither about allowing our female politicians to go on the street and demand for fairer election processes nor is it about allowi...