Realising women’s rights

Photo: Reuters

FOR the All Women’s Action Society (Awam), the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) yesterday in Malaysia was a bittersweet one.

Beyond the obvious reasons of celebrating women for their many achievements and creating awareness about the plight of women who still have to fight for most basic of rights, IWD 2020 also marked a period when there was a spike in Covid-19 cases and also a period in which the country gained a new Prime Minister without the mandate of the people and, significantly for all women (and men) in this country, the final act of legislating the Sexual Harassment Act will clearly not materialise this month due to the delay in the next sitting of Parliament, which has been pushed to May.