SHARED
FROM
TheStar,
Wednesday 30 October 2013
Reflecting
On The law by Shad Saleem Faruqi
The constitution
can confer legal and formal equality
But functional
equality is any outcome is more difficult
Women’s
right are part of the broader mosaic of human rights. Any strides toward gender equality must be
celebrated and supported, but there are a few factors to be taken in account:
- No magic wand
- Gender bias cannot be
exterminated by recourse to the law alone.
- Social and functional equality in
any outcome is more difficult. Around
the world, women are still trapped in stereotyped roles due to:
i. deep-seated
religious and cultural values,
ii. socio-economic
imperatives,
iii. psychological
and biological factors and
iv. traditions
- The battle has to be waged on
many fronts.
- Work of
equal value
- Paradigms have to be shifted
radically to compare the social worth of different jobs.
- Equal rights
versus separate rights
- In a male-dominated society, an
equal treatment approach only benefits women who meet male norms.
- The clock-in system at the office
appears to be gender-free. But given
the existentialist reality that housekeeping and child care are
customarily the responsibility of mothers and wives, a flexi-working hour
system may be fairer for female workers.
- Personal laws
- Education and
empowerment
- Education is one of the keys to
self-respect, independence and empowerment.
- Dignity versus
rights
- Freedom and autonomy are
important nourishments for the soul.
- Many woman need to be reminded
that it is not always right to use our rights especially if that
contributes to denigration of the entire female race. It must be realize that liberal society’s
moral laxity is, and will remain, fatal to women’s dignity.
- Domestic scene
- Bias against women is evident in
some citizenship provisions, personal laws and in the definition of
natives of Sabah and Sarawak.
- The constitutional
protection against gender discrimination does not apply in the private sector
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