Of Unveiling Choice and dehijabbing forum

Maryam Lee, an activist known on Twitter for her views on dehijabbing (Muslim women who discard their hijabs), has taken it another step further when she published a book entitled Unveiling Choice to share her long self-discovery journey towards dehijabbing.

Previously, Maryam was heavily criticized on Twitter and just when people thought she went quiet after all the attacks, it was actually the calm before the storm when Unveiling Choice suddenly made its way to the book market.

In conjunction with the launching of the book, she and another two women activists, legal professional and social media commentator Dian Sofia and journalist and women’s rights activist Mohani Niza, organized a forum ‘Malay women & Dehijabbing’, claimed to be an “intellectual discourse based on women’s lived realities”.

Dehijabbing became a hot issue in February when actress Emma Maembong decided to discard her hijab.

With the launching of Unveiling Choice, combined with a few women who shared their dehijabbing journeys on social media, the issue has once again gained media attention.

Maryam argues that hijab is women’s choice and to choose not to wear it should not be anyone’s concerns, but do all Malay Muslims agree with her?

Sentiment analysis shows major negative takes on her view.

Suffice to say that Maryam Lee is not welcomed on Twitter, seeing as people are still keen to attack her.

The three women are now under investigation by Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS), although all of them insist that they have not broken any laws in the country.

JAIS’ actions against them are considered “harassing and intimidating female activists”.

Lawyer Latheefa Koya has come to their aid by speaking up against JAIS and Prime Minister’s Department’s Islamic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mujahid Yusof Rawa, that women should be free to discuss the choice of their appearances.

Unveiling Choice (as of today) has a 3.83 rating with 3 reviews on Goodreads.