SIS: Hudud contradicts Federal Constitution on women's rights
Published on: Monday, March 30, 2015
Kuala Lumpur: Sisters in Islam (SIS) says that hudud, the syariah-based laws, in Kelantan would contradict the Federal Constitution, in particular Article 8(2) on women's rights.The Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (II) that was approved by the state assembly recently stipulates that Muslim women cannot be witnesses, said SIS Executive Director Ratna Osman.Section 41(1) states that "each witness must be an adult male Muslim and of reputable character". It also dismisses non-Muslims as witnesses.
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"What if the crime is witnessed by only non-Muslims or Muslim women? Will the accused then be acquitted?"The Quran and the Prophet Muhammad's practices, said Ratna, backed gender equality.Citing the late Nik Noriani Badli Shah, who served as SIS's residential scholar, Ratna said the Kelantan enactment's disqualification of women as witnesses in hudud and qisas (retaliation) has no precedent in Islamic law as the Prophet himself had accepted the evidence of women.Nik Noraini, in her paper "Man-Made Codifications of Hudud Laws" in 2002, cited examples of a woman's testimony being accepted, including the case of a girl who was robbed and a woman who was raped by an unknown man.
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She had also highlighted the accounts of Caliph Uthman's wife who was the only witness to the assassination of her husband in the year 656. None raised any objection that in the absence of a male witness the demand for qisas (retaliation in kind) was not tenable.Ratna noted that the punishment under Section 17(2) of the enactment on Qazaf (false accusation of adultery or sodomy) was against the Qazaf (making false allegations) in the Quran.
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The section states that a person accused of adultery or sodomy was subject to punishment of 80 lashes unless he or she claimed to be raped and could produce four male witnesses to the act."This is completely against Qazaf in Quran, which is mentioned in Surah An-Nur 24:4 that states: 'And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not four witnesses to support their allegations, flog them with eighty stripes and reject their evidence ever after'."This Quranic message is meant to protect women from slanderous accusations of zina (sex outside marriage) and yet under the Kelantan Bill the burden is now on women who claim rape to produce four male witnesses, otherwise she will be lashed 80 times."She lamented that the burden of proof remained on women and not on the law enforcement authorities to investigate and make a case against alleged rapists."Why should Muslim women suffer this gross injustice?"Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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