Hudud and Soraya M

KUALA LUMPUR: I would like to make it clear that it is not that I think Hudud is wrong, I just think that when it comes to the implementation of this Islamic criminal law- people cannot be trusted.

I recently watched “The stoning of Soraya M”, a harrowing story set in Iran during the Ayatollah, where a woman was accused under the Hudud law for infidelity.

The movie covers more than the law itself- it exposes the weakness in the system that is man.

“When a woman accuses her husband of infidelity, she has to prove his guilt. When a man accuses his wife of infidelity, she has to prove her innocence.”

Notice the double standard?

(Video credit to MovieTrailerNetwork)

All laws can be manipulated, but it doesn’t take much to realize that Hudud law with its religious backing, is subject to more harmful manipulation.

Will you be able to redeem the wrongly accused once their arms have been cut off, or even worse, stoned to death?

Soraya’s husband who wanted to marry another, decided that the only way to do so was to kill his wife. He plotted with the mullah and the town mayor, and managed to obtain the witnesses to formally charge her and seal her fate.

Many Muslims in Malaysia disagree with the implementation of Hudud law, because we don’t trust people, not because we don’t trust in Islam.

There are also many who are in favour of the implementation of the law will argue that “It is God’s law. It is the right thing to do.”

These are the same people who say that feminism is a facade used by a secret Zionist-Christian alliance to dishonor Muslim women and that that liberty and human rights are godless and faithless ideologies.

As Malaysia progresses as a country towards that ever-shinning beacon of Wawasan 2020, its mind boggling how such laws are actually being contemplated by certain parties. 

What will happen to women’s rights if and when Hudud is implemented?

Will Malaysia have our very own Soraya M?

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Written by Shein Shanin | published in Astro Awani on April 30, 2014