KUALA LUMPUR: In a rare public display of support for recent government statements pertaining to women's rights in Malaysia, women here are praising the Education Ministry after it said that girls in the country cannot be forced to wear a headscarf, or tudung. The statement comes on the heels of controversy over schools attempting to force non-Muslim students into wearing the headscarf. But women had fought back and urged the government to intervene to uphold the rights of girls in Malaysia. “This is a great moment for all of Malaysia because it means we have been able to show the world that being Islamic does not mean we do not uphold the rights of others,” schoolteacher Mariam Abdullaha told Bikyamasr.com on Friday in her Kuala Lumpur classroom. “I have a lot of girls here who most likely would face pressure in other places in the country to wear the scarf even if they are not Muslim,” she added. Malaysia's Deputy Education Minister Mohd Puad Zarkashi said that although female Muslim students were “encouraged to wear tudung and baju kurung in school,” he said they were “also given the option to wear pinafore and not wear the tudung.” “School principals can encourage, but they can't force female Muslim students to wear tudung. This shouldn't be an issue," he said. In a circular issued by the Education Ministry in 1993, it stated that schools didn't have the authority to enforce their own uniform code on students. Under the circular, three uniform options were given to students pinafore and blouse, baju kurung, kain sarung and tudung, baju kurung and kain sarung. While women have been continuing to demand that religious attire and pressure by schools be ended, parents of non-Muslim students or secular Muslim kids believe this is a step in the right direction. However, critics of the move say that Malaysia is an Islamic and “must uphold the values of Islam.” But what are those values, question many in the country, including Abdallaha, who added that “Malaysia is a tolerant country, so it is time we start to be tolerant to our female population and allow us to choose what is right for us to wear, not men.”
