Gender and Sexuality Justice in Asia Finding Resolutions through Conflicts

This book brings together a group of innovative scholars examining the contemporary issue of effecting gender and sexuality justice in the context of Asia, consonant with engendering a just, equitable and sustainable development for all. These grassroots initiatives are woven through three complementary sections of the book: gender justice in Asia, sexuality justice in Asia, and finding resolutions through conflict. The book foregrounds strategies that aim to call out and challenge existing gender and sexuality injustices with regard to women and the LGBTIQA+ community by: assessing the efficacy of gender mainstreaming policies through micro-credit schemes for women in East Java, Indonesia; proliferating the signifiers of the hijab (veil) by postmodern Malay-Muslim women or ‘Hijabistas’ within the consumerist culture of Malaysia; making visible the injustices of the Syariah legal system for non-Muslim women, and ground-breaking legislation that could potentially recognise same-sex marriages in Thailand; privileging the narratives of gay women diplomats within the highly masculinised field of diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region; foregrounding the narratives of Filipino gay men, intimate partner violence among young Indonesian Christian young people, masculine-identifying lesbians in Singapore, young LGBT people in rural Vietnam, and a Chinese-Muslim Malaysian female-to-male transgender person; and proposing new ways of becoming an inclusive church through the radical act of befriending persons living with HIV and AIDS in Southeast Asia. This book celebrates diverse and inclusive voices and strategies of gender and sexual agents of change in envisioning and bringing to fruition a just and transformative society for all. It is of interest to students and scholars researching gender and sexuality in areas of development studies, international relations, socio-legal studies, and literary studies.

Part 1: Gender Justice in Asia.- Chapter 1. Gender Equality and Perpetual Liminalities (Nadiah Ahmad).- Chapter 2. Hail Hijabis: Celebrification of Influencers by Postmodern Malay-Muslim Women in Malaysia (Nurzihan Hassim) and (Siti Mazidah Mohamad).- Chapter 3. The Quest for Activism in Islam: The Perspectives of Indian and Malay Muslim Women Activists (Esita Sur ).- Chapter 4. Gendering Adat Law: Woman’s Rights Activists in Balinese Customary Affairs (Yogi Paramitha Dewi).- Chapter 5. Sexuality as Struggle: Michel Houellebecq and the South East Asian Sex Trade (Klem James).- Part 2: Sexuality Justice in Asia.- Chapter 6. Constructing the (Homo)Sexual Self: Positioning in the Sexual Narratives of Filipino Gay Men (Christian Go).- Chapter 7. The Experience of Young LGBT People in Rural Vietnam (Yen Hoang Ha).- Chapter 8. Looking Queerly Through the Heart: Towards a Southeast Asian Praxis of Doing Church with LGBTIQ/PLHIV (Joseph N. Goh).- Chapter 9. Beyond ‘Butch’: The Fluidity of Embodiment by Masculine-Identified Lesbians in Singapore (Laura E. Wong ).- Chapter 10. Queer Women, Diplomacy and Security: A Case Study of Australian Leaders Deployed in the Asia Pacific (Elise Stephenson).- Part 3: Finding Resolutions through Conflict.- Chapter 11. Fractured Social, Multiple Subjects: Reconceiving a Gender/Sexual Agent of Change (Wong Wai Ching Angela).- Chapter 12. Gender, Religion and Legal Discrimination: A Review of Child Custody Cases Involving Non-Muslim Wives/Mothers in Malaysia (Thaatchaayini Kananatu).- Chapter 13. Indonesian Christian Young People Resisting Dominant Discourses: Surrounding Intimate Partner Sexual Violence (Teguh Wijaya Mulya).- Chapter 14. Queer Ecofeminisms in Asia: Decentring the Hu(man) Towards Sustainability (Sharon A. Bong).

Joseph N. Goh is a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. He holds a PhD in gender, sexuality and theology, and his research interests include queer and LGBTI studies, human rights and sexual health issues, diverse theological and religious studies, and qualitative research. Goh is the author of numerous publications, including Becoming a Malaysian Trans Man: Gender, Society, Body and Faith (2020) and Living Out Sexuality and Faith: Body Admissions of Malaysian Gayand Bisexual Men (2018).

Sharon A. Bong is Associate Professor in Gender and Religious Studies at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (2002) and M.A. in Women and Religion (1997), University of Lancaster, UK. She has authoredBecoming Queer and Religous in Malaysia and Singapore (2020) and The Tension Between Women’s Rights and Religions: The Case of Malaysia (2006). Her research interests include: gender, sexualities and religions in Southeast Asia. She serves on the editorial board of Concilium: International journal for theology, was former coordinator and consultant of the Ecclesia of Women (comprising feminist-Catholic theologians) in Asia and a regional forum writer for the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church.

Thaatchaayini Kananatu is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Business Law and Taxation Department, School of Business, Monash University Malaysia. She holds an LLB Law (Hons.) (Cardiff), LLM/Masters in International Law (Oxford Brookes), and a PhD (Monash) in socio-legal studies. Her research interests include law, gender and race; law and social movements; as well as ethics, human rights and social justice. She is the author of Minorities, Rights and the Law in Malaysia (2020, Routledge) and is co-editor of Vulnerable Groups in Malaysia(2020, De Gruyter) with Sharon G. M. Koh. She is also a British High Commissioner’s Chevening Scholar.