Cham Muslim Women Seek More Rights

Cham women (Photo: Brendan Brady, IRIN)

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
23 December 2009

Mann Fitas is a 43-year-old Cambodian Muslim living in the capital’s Russey Keo district. She has a husband and five children, and, like many Cham women, she is not satisfied with the role her gender plays in her religion.

“In strict Islamic law, wives do not have the right to work outside the house,” she said in a recent interview. “We are just allowed to raise children and look after the house, that’s it.”

Visits outside the home, even to visit relatives, must be conducted by permission, and when a marriage sours, she said, a woman has little recourse.

“No matter how angry a woman is with her husband, she cannot say, ‘I divorce you,’” Mann Fitas said. “We can only complain to the [imam]. But the right to divorce is entitled to the husband.”

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