Negotiating Ideations: The Role of State-Led Identity-Making in the Progress of Women's Rights in Malaysia by Anis Farid, Isabel Chung, Sharifah Shazana Agha, Ren-Chung Yu :: SSRN
This article traces the progress of women’s rights in Malaysia by reference to law reforms between 2017 and 2022, from the position of a civil society organisation (CSO) advocating for those reforms and using a gender-focused lens.
However, upon closer inspection, we argue that the law reforms achieved were ones the state views as congruous with its wider identity-making project for citizens. Consequently, issues at odds with entrenched values imposed on citizens by dominant state narratives become difficult to reconcile, resulting in roadblocks and stalled progress.