Life in Malaysia on International Women's Day | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Regina Yau.

The situation for women in Malaysia has made slow but steady progress over much of the 20th century. I should know: I come from an ethnic Chinese family where the women went from bound feet to Rhodes scholar within four generations. This was also the case for other Malaysian women from families that were upwardly mobile and valued education.

Yet over the last two decades public attitudes towards women have remained stubbornly traditionalist. Malaysian women activists are constantly engaged in a never-ending tug of war with tradition and religion just to keep things inching forward, especially in the face of the growing religious conservatism of Malaysia's Muslim leaders, who are mostly male.

This battle for influence has resulted in the Malaysia of today being a study of sharp contrasts when it comes to women's lives and rights. For example: Malaysian courts hand out some of the most severe penalties for rapists in the world, sentencing convicted offenders to not just significant jail time, but also painful caning. Yet there is still no legislation outlawing sexual harassment at work, leaving many women to tough it out in untenable situations.

This is the Malaysia to which I returned in 2005 after living in the UK for a decade. I was disappointed – though not wholly surprised – to see that underneath the glossy veneer of the "modern" Malaysian society, nothing had significantly changed for women.

So I decided to take action by starting the Pixel Project, a non-profit focused on raising funds, awareness and volunteer power to end violence against women worldwide.

We have a long road ahead of us, but at least we are on it and moving. I hope that when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of International Women's Day we will be able to look back at 2011 as a galvanising year and a positive turning point for women in Malaysia and beyond.

via guardian.co.uk