The figure of the mahasiswa or male university student is in the news again, demanding the liberation of Malaysian academia from draconian government intervention. There is also a ‘rising star’ of student activism: 23 year old Fahmi Zainol, a young Malay man of utopian political and intellectual ambition. As the president of University of Malaya’s… Continue reading Mahasiswa – a universal identity or a Malay masculine one?
Author: Angry Malay Woman
I like plants.
Social mobility versus social climbing
I’ve recently written and submitted a research proposal on social mobility amongst the Indian female underclass (mostly plantation workers and their descendants) in pre and post-independence Malaya. Despite the predominating narrative that the life potential of the Indian underclass is impeded by caste inequality, ethnicity, and by being female, I was nonetheless interested in channels… Continue reading Social mobility versus social climbing
New column on Malay Mail Online – So you want to do a PhD?
My new column on Malay Mail Online, published on 10th October 2014, offers advice and some forewarning about writing a PhD. Read it here.
Is being called a prostitute misogynistic?
Upon arriving home from secondary school many years ago, I was slightly taken aback to find that someone had stuck ‘Slut’ on a post-it note on my backpack. I knew what the word meant and I was sure I was not that, thought my socially-awkward, pimply 15 year old self. Years later in university, and… Continue reading Is being called a prostitute misogynistic?
Feminism without women
The title of this blog post is a reference to Tania Modleski’s 1991 book [1] which has a pointed retort to the postmodernist turn in feminism and its impact on solidarity and political mobilising. The retort had a more specific aim; in 1988, Denise Riley had published Am I That Name? [2], a sort of… Continue reading Feminism without women
New column on Malay Mail Online on the ‘sexual dynamics of looking’
Do read my new column on the Malay Mail, ‘Sexual dynamics of looking‘, published on 26th June 2014, in which I talk about what it means when women are told not to look at men.
What does a city for women look like?
How does a woman walk in a city in the daytime and at night? Does she walk head held up high? Does she think her hair is showing through her headscarf, her knee-length skirt too short? Will that be commented on by someone on the street? Does she walk under what Shilpa Phadke calls the… Continue reading What does a city for women look like?
The finishing line
Of course I’ve always known that I’ll get to the finishing line sooner or later. But the actual experience of being so near it, half-running/crawling towards it, and overwhelmed by feelings of euphoria and total disbelief, exceeds the capacity of words and description. I submit my PhD thesis on the 27th of June 2014. I… Continue reading The finishing line
A Malaysian scholar remembers Stuart Hall
First published in my Malay Mail column on 27th February 2014: A great intellectual died on February 10, 2014. His name was Stuart Hall, dubbed the “godfather of multiculturalism.” As the tributes by academics made up of peers and admirers alike came flooding in, I thought about the impact of Hall’s work concerning identity and… Continue reading A Malaysian scholar remembers Stuart Hall
Men: the true voice of feminism
First published on The Malay Mail on 7th February 2014. When you think about it, most rights have been won by women in Malaysia and all citizens are rendered equal before the Federal Constitution. Malaysian women didn’t even have to fight for the vote. Technically, men and women are almost equal. Needless to say, the… Continue reading Men: the true voice of feminism
Alicia Izharuddin 