Malaysian Women’s Rights “Betrayed” By Government’s Appeal Against Child Citizenship Suit
The Government had an opportunity to embrace the High Court’s decision, and move the needle towards greater justice and equality for its women citizens. Instead, the Government has chosen to perpetuate this gross injustice that has plagued Malaysia since independence, the weight of which Malaysian women have borne for 58 long years.
(The Rakyat Post) – A petition by NGO Family Frontiers is calling for government to drop the appeal against child citizenship suit.
It was a victorious day on 9 September 2021 for Malaysian mothers when the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that they could now have the right to grant citizenship to their children born abroad, which previously was only granted to Malaysian men.
However, that victory was short-lived as in a bold turn of events, the Malaysian government filed an appeal against the landmark court decision on 13 September.
Not long after, an online petition was launched by Family Frontiers Malaysia saying:
We see this as a betrayal of the right that are long overdue to Malaysian women.
The petition, titled “Government Must Withdraw Appeal against Ruling on Citizenship Right of Malaysian Mothers” gathered more than 10,000 signatures in about 24 hours since it was launched yesterday evening (14 September).
It is currently still going strong with close to 14,000 signatures addressing six decision-makers, namely Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, National Registration Department director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun, Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
