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Hakeem pledges to support Muslim women in politics

02 Oct 2022

  • Says SLMC will agree to any increase in quota of female politicians
BY Mirudhula Thambiah     Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition MP and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader Rauff Hakeem noted yesterday (2) that his party would fully support Muslim women entering politics and raising their quota in electoral representation. Speaking to The Morning yesterday, Hakeem said that such representation is going to bring a lot of discipline into the representative bodies and noted that it was unfortunate that there are certain people who are very insensitive towards this initiative.  “We are fully in agreement with any increase in quota for women in politics. We strongly supported the 20% quota for women among winning candidates in the local authorities. That was a big step forward and happened during the time when I was in Cabinet,” he said while also highlighting that his party fully supported the proposal in the select committee as well. “From there onwards, this is another step forward to increase the numbers, so if there is agreement among all parties, we are willing to go along with it,” he added. Hakeem also remarked that while there was no inhibition on his part, there seem to be certain cultural taboos. “We have been very open-minded and encouraging toward women. Culturally there is an inhibition among our own women folk. Generally, this is a patriarchal society and men seem to be the decision-makers. These kinds of perceptions prevail not only in Muslim society, but even among other communities, where it is not actively encouraged,” he noted. He said that his party would like to encourage this initiative wherever possible and that as the leader of SLMC, he had been speaking out on behalf of women. He also said it had been conveyed to them that this taboo should be broken and more women be introduced to politics.  “Most local authorities handle issues which concern women and their household problems. But you cannot exclude women when dealing with issues that pertain to them. They should be equal to men at every level. I have strongly advocated for it, and have been critical of this issue in Parliament,” he added. Meanwhile, SJB MP and All-Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Leader Rishad Bathiudeen said it is a good move to increase women’s representation in politics.   Bathiudeen assured that he would fully support women who would contest elections and enter governing bodies. “Our party not only encourages Muslim women representatives, but other women who would enter politics too,” he added. Last week, a group of Muslim women political activists from various parts of the island met Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to emphasise their willingness to be more active in politics in Sri Lanka and requested that women’s representation in politics be raised by 50% in nomination lists. Speaking to The Morning on 28 September, political activist Ferial Ashraff, the wife of former SLMC Leader M.H.M. Ashraff, said that there is a general perception among certain individuals that Muslim women find it very difficult to enter politics, who also appear to believe that nomination lists will be incomplete if the representation of Muslim women is made mandatory. “There was also a perception among some people that it is very difficult to get Muslim women to enter politics. It is the general perception. If you make a list of names of women in the nominations list to be mandatory, according to some persons, their list could be incomplete,” she said.

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