The redefining of Malay womanhood in Yasmin Ahmad’s films

Alicia over at Cycads offered me to guest write. Hence,I decided to examine Yasmin Ahmad’s representation of young Muslim/Malay women in Malaysia in her “Orked trilogy”: Sepet (2004), Gubra (2006) and Mukhsin (2007)

Introduction at Cycads: The following was written by guest contributor and fellow Malaysian feminist. Writing on the “New Malaysian Femininity’ in the films of Yasmin Ahmad, she presents a Malay womanhood that contrasts squarely with the misogyny and whore/virgin stereotypes typically found in Malaysian cinema.

In 2004, Yasmin Ahmad, famous for her Petronas advertisements depicting multi-racial Malaysia released the movie Sepet (Slitty eyes), to much controversy and praise. It won a string of foreign film awards and a legion of fans local and abroad but it was also lambasted by certain quarters who felt that the movie threatened the moral fabric of Malay/Muslim life in Malaysia by showing its Malay female protagonist “betray” her bangsa (race) by falling in love with a “kafir” (infidel) [1].

Sepet centers on the relationship between Orked (Sharifah Amani), a teenage Malay girl who has just graduated from secondary school and Jason (Choo Seong Ng), a Malaysian-Chinese pirated VCD peddler. This is followed up with Gubra (Anxiety) in 2006, which tells the life of an older Orked, now married; and in 2007, Mukhsin, the prequel in the Orked trilogy which depicts Orked’s childhood in a sleepy Kuala Selangor kampung (village).

The character of Orked marks a departure from the typical heroines we see in Malay films and television. Unlike most Malay women we see on screen, Orked represents a refreshing take on what it means to be a young Malay woman in Malaysia, a rapidly modernizing country which has to delicately deal with globalization and also the paradox of a multi-racial society, still not fully recovered from the May 13th 1969 racial riots. As Khoo Gaik Cheng notes in her book Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature:

“Socio-economic forces, state-initiated, and the cultural development of the NEP years (National Economic Policy 1971-90) had produced a burgeoning discourse about subjectivity among the children of the NEP themselves: what is it like for urban Malay women and men to be both modern and Muslim?”.

In his review of Mukhsin Michael Sicinski writes that:

“… transnational feminist theorists would do well to examine Ahmad’s work, since like them, Mukhsin is about complexifying the world, deepening interconnections, delving into the messiness of the conundrums that women face, and moving outward, forging even more connections.”[2]

In Sepet, we are introduced to Orked, who is around 17 years of age and living in the mining town of Ipoh, patiently waiting for her Malaysian Certificate of Education results (end of secondary school examinations). She spends her free time indulging in her obsession of Japanese movie star Takeshi Kaneshiro, her love for movies by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai and reads up on a variety of intellectual works. She goes out with friends and does what girls her age usually enjoy. She is independent, free-spirited and unapologetically opinionated. In one scene with her best friend, she argues passionately about the racist legacy of colonialism, whereby people still fall in love with white people thinking that they are superior, yet as she quips “You like what you like lah!”

While still subjected to curfew and the occasional concern from her parents, Orked is largely let to be who she is. In fact, Orked’s parents themselves do not present themselves as “typical Malays”. They enjoy a very sexual life together, unabashed about their affections. In one endearing scene, clad in just sarongs, they dance together in their house to Thai music, while feeding each other fruits. Perhaps their “liberal” attitudes may explain Orked’s personality. We see this further in Mukhsin (2007). In one scene, a neighborhood girl teases young Orked about her father doing domestic chores, causing Orked to snap, “My dad helps in the kitchen because he loves my mother!.” Young Orked refuses to play dolls and weddings, instead cocoons herself in her room reading books an asserts her right to play in the field with the village boys. Thus Yasmin Ahmad presents gender roles as unimportant, the absence of which thrive true love and strong character. She also shows the importance of one’s upbringing in shaping one’s worldviews.

Furthermore, Yasmin Ahmad is unapologetic about showing a variety of ways Islam is practiced. Instead of portraying Orked’s liberal attitudes as in direct conflict to Islam, Yasmin Ahmad portrays how Islam can exist side by side with so-called “non-Malay” lifestyles. In other words, there’s no singular way of being a Muslim. After all, Islam is not static and devoid of external influences. Khoo notes that “‘Islam participates in modernity as a globalizing force as well” [3]. Orked gleefully indulges in her pop star obsessions as much as she willingly reads the Qur’an after Maghrib (evening) prayers. There is no dichotomy of good Malay woman/bad Malay woman usually portrayed in Malaysian cinema and television, whereby typically the female protagonist after indulging in “bad Western activities” (e.g. smoking, clubbing, fooling around sexually, dressing very scantily) ultimately repents tearfully on the prayer mat or gets punished by society – or both.

Yasmin Ahmad’s Orked is powerful. She defines for herself what her identity should be. She enters into a relationship with Jason, a young Malaysian-Chinese from a working-class background with all the passion and innocence of a 17 year old girl. A fellow Malay guy friend makes fun of their relationship, denouncing her as a traitor to her race, yet she boldly fights back by saying that “For generations, Malay men have been marrying outside their race”, thus asserting her sexual right as a Malay woman to do the same. Ironically, she is almost raped by the guy’s best friend, an outwardly respectable young Malay man adored by her parents. In Gubra (2006), we see Orked now married not to Jason but a Malay man who ultimately cheats on her. Orked’s husband, upon being discovered of his extramarital affair, tries to soothe Orked by saying that the other woman is stupid, and not worth bothering over as she means nothing to him. Orked retorts, “That’s the problem with you Malay men, you think women are stupid!”. This is both a powerful female assertion of her sexual rights and a scathing critique of Malay/Muslim patriarchy. Grief-stricken, Orked leaves her marriage.

But despite the conflicts Orked faces, she is also very much tied to class privilege. Her family speaks fluent English and employs a maid. Perhaps most strikingly, Orked is tied to Malay/Bumiputra privilege. As Sepet unfolds, we see that Orked gets 5 A’s for her examinations yet she is awarded a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom, where else Jason scores 7 A’s but fails to get a scholarship, having to work illegally by selling pirated VCDs instead. Thus, Yasmin Ahmad shows the contradiction Malay women in Malaysia face. On one hand, they have to battle the gender-roles imposed on them, and yet Bumiputra privileges mean that in some ways, they are able to sail through life. Thus, it is be crucial to examine the factors of class and ethnicity further when examining Malay womanhood.

All in all, through her “Orked trilogy”, Yasmin Ahmad has provided an interesting glimpse of the multi-faceted nature of Malay womanhood. Unlike in the typical representations of women in Malaysian cinema and television, Yasmin Ahmad has managed to construct a different way of seeing young Malay women in Malaysia. Via her protagonist Orked, Yasmin Ahmad shows us the contradictory challenges faced by young Malay women and yet how they are wise in facing these contradictions, handling them with both intelligence and resilience.

Reference

[1] Al Amin, FAM 2008, ‘Controversies surrounding Malaysian independent female director Yasmin Ahmad’s first film Sepet’ in Proceedings of the 17th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, Melbourne, Australia, Monash University, pp. 1-12

[2] Sicinski, M 2008, Reviews of new releases seen, August 2008, The Academic Hack, viewed 10th April 2009.

[3] Khoo, GC 2005, Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature, UBC Press, Vancouver.

Violence against women: Blame men.

A night out with friends. X was telling us about how her boyfriend was insecure over her platonic friendships with other men — she gleefully said that she liked to tease him about it for fun. Z was talking about her boyfriend, how they would have disputes but she would never express her anger physically towards him. I was impressed over what I thought was her principle that no one should ever be assaulted. Or so I thought.

Z proceeded to say, “Because I don’t want him to hit me. Never aggravate the boyfriend”. She turned towards X and said, “Did you hear what I said? DO NOT aggravate the boyfriend. Once a man starts hitting, it is hard for him to stop”.

I was somewhat shocked. Here was a group of educated young women. Perhaps more naively than that, I reasoned that they were my friends. How could they hold such a sexist opinion?

Sexist because it asserts that:

1. Male violence is natural — i.e biological, and thus cannot be helped.

2. Women provoke male violence.

Such misogynistic assumption is not uncommon, sad to say. Almost each time a woman is assaulted/molested/raped/etc, people often ask, directly or indirectly: What was she wearing? Why was she out at night? Why was she alone? Why was she in such a place? What did she do to anger her husband/boyfriend?

This begs the question: Where is men’s responsibility in this?

Let’s take the example of rape. According to Women’s Aid Organisation , 75% of Malaysian women are raped by men known to them. This certainly includes family members and close friends.

We have to acknowledge that violence against women is an intimate act perpetrated by men to assert their dominance and entitlement over women, physically and mentally.

In order to end violence against women, we must demystify it.

Women from all backgrounds are vulnerable to abuse — educated and uneducated, single and married, rich and poor, from the scantily-clothed to those who fully cover themselves, etc.

What then is to be done?

Stop blaming women!

Focus the blame where it should be: MEN.

Let’s start upholding that:

1. Men do not have to be aggressive. While it may argued that men are physically stronger built, this does not imply the right to abuse women.

2. Men do not own women. Men are not entitled over their mothers, sisters, daughters, female friends, partners, female colleagues, etc EVER.

3. Sexual crimes, such as molestation and rape, DO NOT occur because of lust. Lust, whether by men or women, is perfectly natural. Sexual crime, like abuse in general, is about dominance. Men must stop believing that they are better than women.

4. Women are not responsible for the abuse they suffer. To do so is to blame women and to undermine men’s intellect and conscience.

Perhaps Ivy Josiah, Executive Director of Women’s Aid Organisation sums it up better. WAO is currently holding the ‘Censored’ campaign to demystify rape and violence against women in general.

Some facts about violence against women (VAW) in Malaysia:

- According to WAO’s 2007 annual report 73% of the cases of abuse on women seeking shelter in WAO was perpetrated by the victims’ husband.

- Malaysia has witnessed shocking crimes against women. To name a few: In 1999, 17 year-old Audrey Melissa was brutally raped and murdered about 300m from her school; 28 year old marketing analyst Canny Ong was abducted from a shopping mall and gruesomely murdered and in 2007, 8 year old Nurin Jazlin was sexually assaulted and murdered after she had gone to the market near her flat.

- In 2008, the National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia blamed girls’ school uniform for inciting rape. Its vice-president Munirah Bahari said, “The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction”.

The F word

Hello,

You are reading the first post by Malaysianfeminism. Much thinking has gone into this blog and I must say that I am still somewhat vague about the direction it should take.

A good start, perhaps, would be one that goes back to the basics: feminism – what and why?

I’m sure that you already know the definition of feminism, seeing that you are reading this blog.

After all, theoretically, feminism isn’t a complicated idea to understand.

Wikipedia defines feminism as:

[the] belief in the right of women to have political, social, and economic equality with men. It is a discourse that involves various movements, theories, and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, advocate equality for women, and campaign for women’s rights and interests.

Straightforward and good, right? But for as long as I can remember, feminism has been a dirty word.

I used to be one of those people who misunderstood and belittled feminism. I held cliché prejudice – that feminism was anti-men, anti-religion, unnatural, etc. Sure, I was in my early teens and didn’t put much intellectual reasoning in my belief, but that period of my life painfully reminds me of the power of stereotypes, particularly those churned out by media professionals and religious leaders.

My personal arrival towards feminism happened a few years ago when one day, sitting in sociology class, we started learning the topic of “sex and gender”. The very first idea we were introduced to: the difference between sex and gender:

Sex refers to biological differences between men and women – chromosomal, hormonal, etc. Gender, however, refers to the socially constructed notions of how men and women should behave; accepted masculine and feminine attitudes and behaviors which lead to gender roles which inevitably deprives men and women of their full humanity.

Since then, my interest in feminism was piqued. I no longer see feminism as against anything but patriarchy.  Thus, it has since been ingrained in me that feminism is pure and noble, and thus, worth fighting for.

This blog is therefore a modest attempt to reclaim the F word, at least in this part of the world. There’s been a growing women’s movement here in Malaysia which started roughly 24 years ago, but outside of this circle, gender stereotypes still persist and most of the time, go unchecked. I shall try to tackle this topic in my following posts.

Of course I can never represent the full spectrum of feminism. I am just one demographic (Malay, raised as a Muslim, middle-class, etc) but I hope that this blog will foster discussion. Thank you for reading and please keep visiting.

PS. Since this blog is still at an infant stage, I would like to hear suggestions of what I should write. What issues do you want me to bring up? What aspect(s) of the situation of Malaysian women are you interested most in hearing (media, politics, etc)?