CAIRO, March 19, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Malaysia's top feminists, led by the daughters of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and his emblematic predecessor Mahathir Mohammad, on Saturday, March 18, hit out at the recently amended Islamic Family Law, which they say did injustice to women in the name of Islam.

"Any law, passed under the noble name of Islam, should be consistent with our faith’s fundamental principles of fairness, equality, freedom and most of all justice," Nori Abdullah Badawi told the International Consultation on Trends in Family Law Reform in Muslim Countries conference, Malaysia's The Star Online reported Sunday, March 19.

"We live in a world where injustice is not only being perpetuated but worse, injustice, under different guises and names, is being done in the name of Islam. Let this not come to pass in Malaysia," she stressed.

The Malaysian parliament approved in December controversial amendments to the Islamic Family Law.

Under the new Section 107A of the law, a husband is allowed to obtain an injunction preventing the disposition of property by a wife or a former wife.

The amendment also endorses man's right to polygamy without having to prove he is financially capable of treating his wives on equal footing before taking on another.

Upon taking a new wife, men can further seize property belonging to existing wives, and they are also given new rights to claim assets after a divorce, as well as less obligation to pay compensation and alimony.

Abdullah ex officio put the changes on hold, pending consultations with women's groups.

Zainah said major progress had been made to water down the much criticized bill.

Marina Mahathir Mohammad said she feared that her daughters’ hearts would be broken one day by their husbands.

"I worry that they will come to believe that the men in this country are encouraged to be untrustworthy, disloyal, unkind to those they should love and cherish. They will … ask why and will be told that that’s the way it is," she told the conference, which is organized by the feminist Sisters in Islam group.

"I worry about how young people like them, who see the many injustices perpetuated in the name of Islam, find themselves driven away from what is a beautiful and just religion, because it does not make them feel good," added the daughter of Malaysia's longest-serving premier, who ruled for 22 years until 2003.

Marina has sparked a controversy after comparing the status of Malaysian women with the treatment of South Africans under apartheid.

"In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women: that between Muslim and non-Muslim women," she wrote in her column in the local Star newspaper earlier in the month.

Hanis Hussein, the daughter of former premier Tun Hussein Onn, said Muslim women have been stereotyped by the West as second-class property of fathers, husbands, brothers and other male members of the family.

"I beg to differ. A Muslim woman is like a veil and a sword. She is soft, gentle and modest, yet strong, resilient and courageous," she told the gathering.

SIS executive director Zainah Anwar, however, said that major progress had been made in discussions with the attorney general to water down the much criticized bill.

"We didn’t get everything that we want but there are redressal mechanisms in there. The principles (of the law) are explained to minimize any injustice," she told reporters after the conference's opening session.

Discussions were held with leading feminist and Islamic groups in the country, chiefly SIS, Persatuan Ulamak Malaysia, Islamic Dakwah Foundation and Jemaah Islah Malaysia.

The new amendments are expected to be tabled in parliament in May, according to the Malaysian daily.

"We hope that this is the way future laws will be made in this country, especially laws that have such a wide impact on everybody,” said Zainah.

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