Saturday, February 28, 2009

Equality and Justice

WANTED: Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family edited by Zainah Anwar (RM 28.00)

This unique collection of analytical papers contains the arguments supporting Musawah, the Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. These resource materials look at why they are necessary given the socio-economic realities of today's Muslim Society.

The collection's strength is that it brings together analysis from a remarkably broad range of disciplines to support rights-based reform of Muslim family laws and the protection of existing rights. These disciplines include: Qur'anic exegesis, fiqh or jurisprudence, socio-legal history and analysis, international human rights law, gender studies, political science, sociology and economics.

Although the contributions are from leading scholars and analysts in the field, the style is designed to be accessible to all who are concerned about the need for equality and justice in the Muslim family.

As a concise resource for the Musawah movement, the book also contains the Musawah Framework for Action, a collectively-developed holistic approach that lays the foundation for the claim that family laws and practice can -- and must -- change to reflect equality and justice and the lived realities of Muslims today.

Monday, February 16, 2009

And the hits keep on rolling

Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things Vol. 2 compiled by Amir Muhammad (RM 25.00)


Test your knowledge on current affairs. Who said the following unforgettable lines?

"
Malaysia has already far too many tigers. They should be shot because there is no use keeping them alive."


"Problems happen because women cannot accept polygamy, What about doing a campaign so that women can accept polygamy?"


"If you come across a snake and a man from a certain ethnic community, you should hit the man first."

The Malaysian politician continues to to be a gift that keeps on giving. Hot on the heels of the best-selling Vol 1 of Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things, this compilation is further proof that we don't need to travel far to experience shock and awe. Join us for another dance through some of the toe-tapping delights of the past two decades. Some of the quotes are witty and pithy, others are weird and prickly, and still others are just out-of-tune. If all History lessons were this painless, none of us would have ever skipped class

Sunday, February 01, 2009

More paintings

DrawingsDrawings by Khor Seow Hooi (RM 88.00)

'Familiar places always surprise me and I will never tire of them. A back lane is never the same when I return to it. From a corner, on a porch, or out a window, something interesting presents itself. Perhaps it is a group of men hunched over a chess board. Or a parent encouraging a little child to cycle. It could be an old, old woman smiling toothlessly, framed by a door. Whatever it is, I must paint it.'

Khor Seow Hooi was born in Penang in 1946. He studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore from 1965 to 1967. He attended the Oriental Institute of Technology in Taiwan for textile painting from 1972 to 1974. He trained at the Bayer Lab in Hong Kong in 1974 and the Bayer Lab Training, Germany, in 1985. Khor held the first solo exhibition of his works in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 and his second one-man show in Singapore the same year. He has participated in many art exhibitions since and his paintings are part of both corporate and priovate collections in Malaysia and abroad.