Malaysia in caning women debate - Al Jazeera

Photo by Reuters/New Straits Times Press

Malaysia tries to handle fallout and score political points from news that it caned three women for sex outside of wedlock.

Malaysia wants to organise an international conference to "discuss" the caning of women.

It will be international only in a limited sense, since only other Muslim nations will be invited, and the agenda is extremely vague. Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil says only

'The ministry hopes ... we can make a comparative study on whether the sentence is normally practised among Muslim countries.

Since that information can easily be compiled with a few phone calls, and the subject of the conference as proposed does not, at first glance, hold much promise of enlightened or even interesting discussion, you have to wonder: what's going on here?

Well, in true Malaysian style, it's looking increasingly like a hasty and ham-fisted effort to manage the fallout - and gain political leverage - from the news that this month, for the first time in Malaysian history, three women were subjected to caning by authorities.

The women (along with four men, but there was no information provided about the apparent mismatch in numbers) were accused of having sex outside of wedlock, and sentenced by Malaysia's autonomous sharia court.

The home minister said:

The sentence is to educate and make the offenders realise their mistakes and to return to the right path".

The story highlights once again the rift between Malaysia's conservative Muslims - increasingly supported by the government - and the more liberal elements within both its Muslim and non-Muslim population.

In protesting the decision, some have asked why the sentence was imposed and carried out in secret and not announced until a week after the act, and wonder what it implies about the government's intentions towards Malaysia's secular constitution, which forbids caning of women.

Some are convinced that the women were coerced into making the statements in which they welcomed their punishment as "deserved".

Others question why former deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim was not caned when he was previously convicted of sodomy, since caning is prescribed for that act also. (Perhaps this uproar will have increased the chances of that sentence being handed down if he's convicted this time.)

And what does it mean for Malaysia's large gay and transsexual community, and those millions of Muslims who regularly consume alcohol?

All of them are now presumably on notice of being arrested and caned, too.

That Malaysia has been trending towards an increasingly strict Islamic identity has been debated in earnest for some years now.

The latest government attempt to manipulate the national psyche has been to force radio stations to play fewer Western songs, arguing they have a "negative impact on nationalism", and many are seeing parallels between this caning decision and the recent furore over the use of the word "Allah".

For many analysts, it all adds up to an increasingly grim scenario:

It is a power issue for the government of the day to show its ‘physical’ Islamic credentials and also for the sharia courts to quietly and using backdoor means to raise its status to a level higher than what is provided for in the Federal Constitution

For its part, the government is attempting to paint the canings as within the bounds of accepted practice; the deputy prime minster believes all that's required is a little explanation and dialogue to clear up any "wrong impressions".

But the strongest impression that is likely to remain from this incident is one of an increasingly paternalistic and sexist society seeking to convince its women that caning is necessary for their own good; something the DPM believes is necessary for reminding them "to honour and abide by their religion".

The attitude is unambiguously driven home by the somewhat Orwellian announcement that the caning conference will be organised by the "Secretariat of Advocacy and Empowerment of Muslim Women".