Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of the opposition Pan-Malaysian
Islamic Party, said he wanted to speak about the "emotional abuse" that men
face because it is seldom discussed, the party reported on its Web site
Wednesday.
"We always (hear about) the abuse of children and wives in households, which is
easily perceived by the eye, but the emotional abuse of men cannot be seen,"
Nik Abdul Aziz said. "Our prayers become unfocused and our sleep is often
disturbed."
Nik Abdul Aziz has made controversial comments about women in the past,
including that women should stop wearing lipstick and perfume to lower the risk
of being raped. Women's groups have slammed his statements, saying Islam
teaches both men and women to be responsible for modesty. They say comments
like these encourage rapes because it puts the onus on women.
Nik Abdul Aziz's fundamentalist party has about 800,000 members. He is also the
chief minister of northeastern Kelantan, the only one of Malaysia's 13 states
that is not ruled by the moderate National Front governing coalition.
His party's Web site published an illustration Wednesday of how women should
dress - in long, flowing headscarves covering their hair and chests and "baggy
and loose" long-sleeved, floor-length dresses.
Most women from Malaysia's Malay Muslim majority wear a modest form of Islamic
clothing, though younger women in cities sometimes wear body-hugging dresses or
tight T-shirts and jeans.
In Kelantan, the Islamic party has fined Muslim women for not wearing
headscarves in workplaces and implemented separate check-out lines for men and
women in supermarkets.
The Associated Press
