Fri 24 Oct 2008 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Malaysia's high-powered National Fatwa Council has banned women from dressing or behaving like men and engaging in lesbian sex, saying it is forbidden by Islam, the country's official religion. The ruling came out of a meeting which discussed recent cases of young women "behaving like men" and "exhibiting homosexual tendencies," the state news agency Bernama reports. Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin says many young women admire the way men dress, behave and socialise, "violating human nature and denying their femininity... [It] becomes clearer when they start to have sex with someone of the same gender, that is woman and woman." Male homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia but lawyers say female homosexuality is technically permissible as there are no mentions for it in any laws. The Fatwa Council has no civil law jurisdiction but the Council's ruling is being interpreted as an attempt to push female homosexuality towards illegality.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 24th October 2008 - 9:04pm