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Women in Malaysian Islamist Politics 173

that in order to be successful in Malaysian Islamist politics, a woman must
somehow reconcile stereotypical ideals of Malay-Muslim femininity, including
the need to cultivate a soft voice and a modest, caring, or ‘motherly’ character
and appearance, with a professional persona. is tension is predicated on
changing, and to some extent contradictory, trends and perceptions regarding
the role of Muslim women in the public sphere. While Malaysia and Southeast
Asia more broadly are characterized, culturally and historically, by relatively
high levels of female autonomy, prestige, and public visibility, the formal
domains of politics and religion have long been seen as quintessentially ‘male’.
An important change is taking place, however, in terms of the credentials
that both men and women bring to those realms and use to legitimize their
positions. Women have caught up with men in higher education, both secular
and religious, and have even surpassed them in terms of student numbers
(Wan 2018). While there is a gap, especially among Muslim women, between
university enrolment and workforce participation (Sloane-White 2017: 103),
it is a fact that women’s agency has expanded from public yet traditional
roles in spaces associated with the domestic realm (villages, neighbourhoods,
markets, local prayer rooms, community centres, etc.) to spaces of professional
authority (o ces, hospitals, universities, conference halls, television studios,
etc.). is trend goes hand in hand with changing religious forms, including
increasingly dominant ideas about personal piety, modesty, and public
morality geared, at least partly, toward the governance of women and women’s
bodies (e.g., Frisk 2009). Overcoming these tensions is central to the political
ambitions of all women who have tried to secure a state or parliamentary seat
for PAS or Amanah.
e tension is not limited to these two parties. PAS and Amanah are
Malaysia’s only self-proclaimed Islamist parties, but there are distinctly Islamist
elements in UMNO and PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, People’s Justice Party)
as well (see, e.g., Hew, this volume; Liow 2009). For instance, one may note
the conspicuous similarities, both in terms of religious outlook and in terms
of the performance of a professional ‘style’, between Dr Mariah Mahmud
and prominent PKR MP, former chair of the women’s section of the Islamist
organisation Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM), and current Deputy Minister of
Religious A airs Fuziah Salleh. I nonetheless have good reasons for focusing
on Islamist parties. Historically, the claim to religious authority has been
much more pronounced in PAS than in other Malay-Muslim parties. At the
same time, PAS’s GE14 slogan of building a ‘technocratic country’ (negara
teknokratis) goes back to religious and political contestations bearing on class
and gender that have animated the party since the 1980s (see Noor 2014). e

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