NOVEMBER 19 — You know our public universities have gone to the dogs when they start hosting, among other things, forums about supernatural medicine. The latest example of common sense and reason dying in our academia is this: an anti-feminism forum entitled Mahasiswi tolak feminime: Muliamu gadis kerana Islam (Women undergraduates rejecting feminism: Women are glorified because of Islam).

That’s a lot like prisoners organising a forum entitled Incarceration: The uplifting freedom of being in jail.

Many men and, I see now, many women do not understand what feminism is. I keep hearing statements like the following all the time, on Facebook, on Twitter and in person:

“I don’t believe in feminism, I only believe in human rights.”

“Feminists... they’re manhaters, aren’t they?”

“Why doesn’t anyone talk about men’s rights?”

Feminism arose as a means to address the huge power imbalance between the sexes.

Men hold the bulk of the power, political, religious, economical. Men, for centuries, have voted for policies that maintained that status quo.

A (former) friend of mine said feminists would probably get their points across better if they “weren’t so angry.”

Look. Women have every right to be angry. They still have plenty of reason to be angry about the current gender disparity, the blatant misogyny, the fact that women have to fear sexual attacks in a way that men do not.

I feel sad for these undergraduates who are railing against feminism, claiming its existence is to undermine religion and the state.

If it wasn’t for feminism, many women wouldn’t be allowed to vote. Many women wouldn’t be in positions of leadership or, in some cases, allowed to leave the house.

Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabi school of thinking has its women unable to leave the house without a chaperone, not allowed to drive and being oppressed with the excuse that all these restrictions on their freedom is “Islamic.” 

Has no one pointed out to these women that they owe a lot of what they have now to feminism? — Picture taken from Facebook

Are our universities now hotbeds for the numbnuts who blame the Jews and Israel for everything? Who are these people who are telling women that feminism is evil, feminism is anti-God?

I wish I could tell these women to understand what feminism is. Feminism is about justice. Feminism is about equality. Feminism is about balance and the way the world is right now, it is very imbalanced.

There is nothing evil about feminism. What is evil, however, is this brainwashing of women to hate freedom and independence and to believe that being treated like lesser beings or chattel is somehow pleasing to God.

Any man who tells you a woman is unfit to lead is sexist.

Any man who pays you less or values your workplace contributions less is sexist.

Note, I said “man.” You can’t really be sexist towards men because men are the dominant gender. The dominant gender can’t be oppressed by the gender that is not holding all the power.

But then this is Malaysia where the minorities are accused of “oppressing” the majority.

Dear women, feminism isn’t the problem. A society that does not value it, or worse, totally misunderstands what it represents — that is a problem. 

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.