Dissent
The newsletter
April 2014
Editorial Note
Interviews featured
Aela Callan
Stephanie Scawen
Editorial team
Ushah Ayub Kazi
Luqy Ana
Jumana Abuwala
Contributors
Nusair Teli
Aric Ting
Tuanku Muhammad Radiyan S. Narukaya
The views expressed by our contributors do not
necessarily reflect the views of Dissent. If you disagree
with an article, please write to us and we will publish
your response in our next issue.
When the idea of a month for women was first suggested, we really didn’t know where we’d end
up, or how we’d begin. The faculty offices at Monash Malaysia seemed an obvious place to
start, so we raided them. Two weeks, three annoyed professors and a million brainstorming
sessions later we had a brief outline.
We didn’t want August 2014 to be a weekend charity, where women in pink ran a marathon or
bought merchandise in support of some seemingly feminist organization. August 2014 would
have to comply with the soul-searching that has become the essence of Dissent Conclave. We
would look at the woman who isn’t mainstream, the inspiration for whom came from Sojourner
Truth. Her immortal ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ speech has been treated as a civil rights bench mark,
unsurprisingly so given her history. But we believe that it was more universal than that. In her
unadulterated, raw and emotionally charged words, she unmasked the inequality and adversity
encompassing the world of women. In Urdu, we have a saying, “aurat aurat ki dushman hoti hai”
(loosely translated, “woman is enemy to woman”) and Truth’s speech lays bare the foundation
of this principle. She questions not just the patriarchal establishment, which confined women to
preset roles, but also women who ignored their marginalized counterparts. ‘Ain’t I a woman?’
Or, am I not as much of a woman as you? The individual topics fell into place. They focused on
issues of self-image, slavery, and discrimination. Who were these women? What did they go
through? And the questions went on. Eventually we had established the blueprint, we just
needed the cornerstone.
At this point, someone argued that our approach was too dark; obsessively focusing on failures
and completely ignoring successes. They suggested that we ought to include a successful woman
to our list of speakers, the inclination being a corporate executive with a six figure salary and a
glamorous wardrobe. This off course was a little too mainstream for the dissent ethos. Instead,
we asked ourselves, why not deconstruct the image of a success itself? For the image of a
successful woman is perhaps the most daunting stereotype, and nothing is more worth
questioning than stereotype itself. It has to be mentioned here that SETA from the school of
business, particularly Dr. Vicki Little and her team were the pillars of the event which opened
the month. It set the tone and escalated into something spectacular. Stereotype is an aspiration
that women are fed everyday, so the idea that an Aela Callan, a Priya Terumalay and a Wei San
Lee are all equally good, albeit unique, is revolutionary. They inspire us, but in completely
different ways.
We don’t know how many more discussions we will be organizing, or whether we’ll have
another ‘ain’t I a woman’ month. But we just helped facilitate something really special, and for
now let’s celebrate that.
-Ushah Kazi