Today we have a guest blog by Kaberi Dutta. Kaberi who is a nineteen year old Malaysian studying Social Anthropology and Law at SOAS, and hoping to alert people to the importance of feminism, one argument at a time. ***** Having grown up as a Malaysian Indian girl, who studied at an International school in… Continue reading Guest blog: Why can’t women wear short skirts?
Category: Malaysia
New column: Greetings from corporate academia
My new column in the Malay Mail online, published on 4th June 2015: Private higher education in Malaysia has evolved into a new kind of species. Like a forest-dwelling creature adapting to its new habitat in denuded wastelands, private higher education has learned to transform its identity, priorities, and raison d’être in the surreal world… Continue reading New column: Greetings from corporate academia
Academic style
Google ‘academic style’ and chances are you’ll get academic writing style and not academic sartorial style. How is a woman to know how to dress like an academic? Deciding what to wear for work as an academic is supposed to be exciting. The academic identity exudes authority and expertise, and so it should seem obvious… Continue reading Academic style
On Anis Sabirin the Malay feminist writer (and translation of my new column)
I cannot remember what I was doing in the British Library one fine afternoon in 2014, but I had found a who’s who of Malay literature published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. In it was a short biography of Anis Sabirin, a name I was faintly familiar with for being the singular critical voice against… Continue reading On Anis Sabirin the Malay feminist writer (and translation of my new column)
New piece on New Mandala: Rape and the pantomime of misogyny
I have a new piece up on New Mandala published on 19th February where I try to grips with the violent misogyny in Malaysian politics. It is a mere platitude to argue that these male politicians are misogynistic. What’s more pertinent to ask is, why are they are using their platforms to air these views,… Continue reading New piece on New Mandala: Rape and the pantomime of misogyny
New column on the Malay Mail: Are we ready for post-nationalism?
I have a new column out on the Malay Mail, Are ready for postnationalism?, published on 13th February 2015. It’s nice to see the dust settling after a week of nationalistic confabulation. In its wake, the political appropriation of the life and achievements of Tunku Abdul Rahman last week left a distinct kind of aftertaste.… Continue reading New column on the Malay Mail: Are we ready for post-nationalism?
New column on the Malay Mail: The economics of virginity in patriarchal Malaysia
My column on the Malay Mail, The economics of virginity in patriarchal Malaysia, published 2nd February 2015: Let’s forget that the hymen is central to the idea of (female) virginity. Focus instead on virginity as a cultural and social form of control. When we do this, we will discover that virginity is only a construct… Continue reading New column on the Malay Mail: The economics of virginity in patriarchal Malaysia
Against fluff feminism
Every so often, ‘feminism’ would bubble up to the surface of the Malaysian mediasphere. It would be shared and retweeted on social media, but it would not stimulate a lengthy (documented) discussion on what it really is, what its aims are, and how people often get it ‘wrong’. This post is on the latter concern;… Continue reading Against fluff feminism
Mahasiswa – a universal identity or a Malay masculine one?
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?
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
Alicia Izharuddin 