Siti Kasim Asks Maszlee To Explain Islamic Studies Exam Question On Wife-Beating
The question paper has gone viral on social media after being shared by Siti Kasim.
By Sadho Ram — 23 Sep 2018, 01:55 PM
In a Twitter post tagging Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik And Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed, litigation lawyer Siti Kasim highlighted a highly problematic question in a September/October 2018 model exam paper for the Form Five Islamic Studies subject
In her post, the activist-lawyer, who frequently speaks up on issues affecting Malay-Muslims in the country, asked the Education Minister to explain the Islamic Studies examination paper's question on permissible ways to "hit a disobedient wife."
"Is this what our Malay children (are) learning in school?? What is this Dr Maszlee Malik? Is this acceptable? What kind of trash are we teaching the kids in school?" Siti asked in the post alongside an image of the problematic examination question.
The problematic question, presented in the form of a flowchart whose header reads, "Ways to hit a nusyuz (disobedient) wife"
The Sept/Oct 2018 model examination paper's question for the Form Five Islamic Studies subject, which has been issued by the Selangor Education Department, carries three separate boxes under the header, with two of them filled and one left blank.
The two boxes state – "Not too overboard that it would cause injury" and "Not on sensitive areas," and the third one requires students to fill in their own permissible way.
Following her post on Twitter and Facebook, where it has been shared over 1.5k times, Siti was reported saying by Malaysiakini that students should be taught the Quran from multiple perspectives
"We should not be teaching our children such rubbish in schools.
"There are many other opinions on the interpretation of (how to discipline wives). Why do we teach our children only one interpretation?
"If they really want to teach (this), teach all other interpretations too. Let them decide which is best in Islam in accordance to the Quran, which is all about mercy and compassion," Siti was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini on Saturday, 22 September.
