Author:
Publication: Gomantak Times
Date: October 28, 2000
A play depicting martial violence
within Indian Muslim society is to be staged privately in Singapore after
authorities refused a public performance license for the work.
The play "Talaq" - meaning divorce
in Malay - depicts real life accounts of Indian Muslim women in Singapore
and explores oppression, martial violence and rape, and the culture of
silence forced on them by their families. It has been strongly condemned
by a male- only Indian Muslim organisation which maintains that under Islamic
law a husband cannot rape his wife, and does not need her permission for
sexual relations.
The police Public Entertainment
Licensing Unit (PELU) this week barred the Agni Kootthu theatre from staging
the play in public. It gave no reason for refusing a permit, but said the
views of the Masjilis Ugama Islam Singapura (the Islamic Religious Council
of Singapore) and the National Arts Council (NAC) had been taken into consideration.
Agni Kootthu president Somasundram
Thenmoli said the play had attracted widespread interest from women of
all races and she would now stage private English and Malay language showings
this weekend.
People can register for a special
invitation to see the work, she said, adding that Pelu officials had told
her the private viewing could go ahead as no tickets were being sold.
Haji Ebrahim, the secretary of the
male-only South Indian Jamiathul Ulama, said his orgnisation objected to
the play because it did not give an accurate depiction of Islamic law.
"In Islamic law, a man cannot rape
his wife as long as the marriage continues," he was reported saying in
the Straits Ties on Friday. "He need not ask permission from his wife for
sexual relations each time he wants to have it," he said.
"Even if she is angry or not in
the mood, he has the right to it. In any event, a husband can have sex
with his wife without her consent and that will not be rape." However,
an Indian Muslim woman, Mumtaz Begum, claimed Ebrahim had misinterpreted
the Koran. "In Islam, a husband is not allowed to use force on his wife
for sex," she told the Straits Times.