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KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Harassed and investigated by religious authorities, activist Maryam Lee is a highly controversial figure in Malaysia.
His crime? Speaking about her decision to stop wearing the hijab and criticizing what she sees as institutional patriarchy in Islam.
The majority of the Muslim-majority Malaysians follow a moderate form of religion and it is not compulsory to wear a headscarf, known locally as “tudung” and used to cover the head and neck.
But experts say the nation has become more conservative in recent years and today, most Muslim women wear one.
Maryam, who was forced to wear a headscarf since the age of nine, says that she realized in her mid-20s that she was meeting a social expectation rather than a religious requirement and decided to remove it.
“All my life, I had been told that (wearing the headscarf) is mandatory and if I don’t wear it, it’s a sin. And then I found out that it really wasn’t, so I felt very cheated – like everyone else in your life. life has told you one thing, and it turns out to be a lie, “he explains.
It was a difficult personal decision, but when it was made public, detailing his story in his book Unveiling Choice, he faced backlash and death threats.
Malaysia’s minister for religious affairs raised concerns and was detained for questioning under a law against insult to Islam: The country has a two-track legal system, with Muslim citizens subject to syariah laws in certain areas.
Ms Maryam believes officials were concerned that she was encouraging other women to “ditch the hijab,” but insists that she is not.
“I am not telling women what to think. I am asking them to review certain assumptions and certain theories that they have been taught over the years,” says the 28-year-old.
“Even without legal criminalization, women face social criminalization when they want to take off (the hijab),” she says, adding that women like her are in a “prison of the expectations of society.”
To mark the launch of her book, which she describes as a story of resistance against patriarchy in religion and society in general, she participated in a talk called Malay Women and Deshijabbing, which fueled the furor against her.
Head coverings differ throughout the Muslim world, from scarves that leave the face visible to the niqab that clears the areas around the eyes, and the burqa that conceals everything with just a mesh screen to see through.
In the West, they remain controversial amid debates over freedom of religious expression and women’s rights: France does not allow students to wear the hijab in schools and, along with Belgium, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands, has a total ban on wearing the niqab or burqa in public.
Muslim women in Malaysia, which is more than 60% Muslim but is also home to large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, wear a headscarf that covers their hair and chest, although it is not a legal requirement.
Critics say this expectation of modesty was not the case a generation ago and is the result of the increased influence of the increasingly vocal religious hardliners.
Ms Maryam has been the target of angry fans, but has also been hailed as the voice of the modern Malaysian woman by some members of the social media generation eager to express their individuality and faith.
‘NOT LESS THAN A MUSLIM’
“Women in this part of the world, when they take off their hijab, what happens to them? They intimidate them, they harass them,” says Ms Maryam.
Malaysia’s human rights group, Sisters of Islam, agrees that unveiled women are under intense scrutiny from family, colleagues and the public, making the decision “difficult and traumatic. “.
Ms. Maryam argues that her choice was to move away from patriarchal instruction rather than her faith. “I was born Muslim, I am still Muslim, I am no less Muslim because I took off my hijab,” she explains.
She is not alone.
Even some prominent female politicians in Malaysia, such as Ms. Rafidah Aziz and former central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, do not cover their heads, nor do the wife or daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
In urban areas, young women have experimented with turbans and other “fashionable” head coverings, despite criticism that they violate religious guidelines.
Sarah, a consultant for a financial firm who gave a pseudonym so as not to upset her family, no longer wears the headscarf, believing it to be a patriarchal expectation.
She says: “Malaysian men, especially at an authority level, somehow have this mentality … that Malaysian women need to appear in a certain way, but that doesn’t mean that these people who wear tudung are better.”
Religious authorities have yet to close their investigation into Ms Maryam, which means there is a possibility of further action.
But she doesn’t regret her decision to open up about her experience.
“You need to wake up society,” he says.
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