Malaysian lady unable to marry outside her religion
June 6th, 2007 by ashish
For people living in the west or in a liberal democracy, the concept of restrictions on your religious rights, or which religion to profess, or even more, whom to marry are fundamental rights. It does not seem likely that any of these can be infringed; but yet, this happens in the world. Malaysia is seen as a strong developing country, and a modern democracy that has a Muslim majority (fewer people will know this). Well, here’s a case that will challenge all such beliefs. There is this lady, born a muslim, who wanted to convert to Christianity, and to marry a Christian. However, difficult to believe, but she is unable to do this. In this time and age, she is not legally allowed to marry a person from outside her religion, nor is she allowed to change her religion. In fact, it is very much possible that she may be persecuted for trying to convert her religion. In many parts of Malaysia, it is a crime to try to convert away from Islam. Refer to this Time article:
Lina Joy chose her faith long ago. Born a Muslim in the multiethnic nation of Malaysia, she started attending church in 1990 and was baptized as a Christian eight years later. But on Wednesday, Malaysia’s highest court blocked her final attempt to have her conversion legally recognized by the state. It was a blow to her heart as well as her soul. Malaysian law prohibits marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims, so Joy will not be able to wed the Christian man she loves.
Yet the Federal Court’s ruling on the Joy case undermines Malaysia’s claim of tolerance. Already, several Malaysian states have made renunciation of Islam punishable with prison time. Wednesday’s court decision was greeted by shouts of “God is great” from Muslims gathered outside the courthouse. Those supporting the separation of mosque and state were less jubilant. “This case is not just a question of religious preference but of a potential dismantling of Malaysia’s … multiethnic, multireligious [character],” said Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer for Joy, before the verdict was announced.
This really sounds incredible, and is also more surprising because most people would associate such kinds of discrimination with Islam as it is practiced in the Middle East, not in a supposedly modern place such as Malaysia. However, religious fervour carries its own force, and when a person is put in the position of opposing something religious, especially in the case of Islam where to oppose religious fanatics can be dangerous many times, most people will buckle down. And this is what seems to be happening in the case of Malaysia.
There is a growth towards greater implementation of the rule of Shariat, and the surprise element is the fact that the civil judiciary refused to get drawn into this debate. And of course, for such a fundamental problem with regard to religious freedom and women’s rights, I really have not seen any more feedback on this issue. One would have expected to see more editorials and the like, but nothing of this sort seems to be happening.
[...] Typically, it is the countries in the Middle East that are seen as discriminatory, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. However, it is not well know that there are other countries that are equally discriminatory. So, let me present one more country that is equally bad in this regard - Malaysia. In a post some weeks back, I talked about how a woman was unable to marry the person she loved because she was a Muslim and her boyfriend was a Christian. She was not allowed to convert, nor to marry a person outside her religion, and the court refused to hear her case because her case would be governed by a Sharia court. Well, they are it again. There is this lady, whose family were Hindu, but who converted to Islam before she was born. They gave her a Muslim name, but she claims that she was raised as a Hindu. She later married another Hindu as per Hindu religious rites, but the marriage was never legally registered because her husband would have to convert to Islam first. Read this to see what happened next: Revathi married Suresh Veerappan in 2004 according to Hindu rites and gave birth to a daughter in December 2005. But the marriage was not legally registered because under Malaysian law Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first. Islamic officials seized the couple’s 18-month-old daughter from her Hindu father in March and handed the child to Revathi’s Muslim mother. A Muslim-born woman who was forced to spend six months in an Islamic rehabilitation center because she wants to live as a Hindu said Friday after her release that she will never return to her original faith. Revathi Masoosai, 29, said officials at the center tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, a practice sacrilege to Hindus. Tuah Atan, a lawyer representing the Islamic department, said officials remain hopeful that Revathi might still return to Islam. “From the facts of the case, the authorities still strongly feel she can reform,” Tuah said. [...]