Girl Power!

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Last Saturday, which was on the 20th of March 2010 was my mother's birthday. For this reason, we went to a hotel for a buffet lunch/tea time with her friends, who always get together on their respective birthdays(I know, irrelevant, but wait, I'm getting there)

One of my mother's childhood friends, Dr. Hamidah Merican, who is always there is the Executive Director of a women's rights movement known as Sisters in Islam(mainly for Muslim women rights). I recently found out that Marina Mahathir is part of this movement. Previously, I have heard stories about the movement, what it stands for and other relevant matters. However, on this particular day, when Dr Hamidah Merican arrived at the buffet, there was a chatter amongst the adults congratulating her and asking her a bunch of questions. This got me curious, and that was when I asked one of my mother's other friend,"Auntie, what is all the fuss, what happened?" and got a reply "She met Obama, you didn't know?" and I went " Oh my god, what? No, I hadn't heard."

This, again, got me started as my excitement rose for being in the same room as a person who has met Barack Obama(other than Faisal Hassan if I'm not mistaken :) ), the president of the United States of America, as well as leaders from various countries. This is because she had also traveled to Australia and England to meet with other prominent figures to discuss the purpose and reason for the existence of Sisters in Islam. Dr. Hamidah Merican had discussed the matter of caning women which surfaced during Kartika's trial, the part time model/mother who had been caught consuming alcohol. She addressed the fact that, imaterial of this woman's actions, women should not be caned under any circumstances as Islam teaches one to care and provide for women, not hurt them.

This shout out may not have anything much to do with media but I am sure this occurance has broken a few grounds for Sisters in Islam as this group finds it difficult to voice out their views and opinions on Islamic Law here in Malaysia but has got all the other main political figures hearing them out. Even Barack Obama had voiced out his support for the group during Dr. Hamidah Merican's meeting with him. This goes to show the power of women if you try to mess with them or think that they are weakly able to be stepped on.

On second thought, I guess the media can be involved as Dr. Hamidah Merican could not have possibly gotten contacts or set up a meeting with Barack Obama or vice versa if not for the modern media :D .

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