User:Theboykevvv/Aihwa Ong

Summary: State versus Islam: Malay families, women’s bodies, and the body politic in Malaysia.

Transnational surrogacy in India: Interrogating power and women’s agency.

Aihwa Ong Is a Malaysian anthropologists who was born in 1950 whose research had focused on technology, politics and affects of the situations that are changing in the Asia Pacific rim. In her work “State versus Islam: Malay families, women’s bodies, and the body politic in Malaysia.” Ong argues the struggles between state power and revivalist Islam over the changing body politic to control the definition of Malay womanhood and the families.

Aihwa Ong focused on understanding how households were and better understanding of the sex status in each area was like. She goes on to explain how in Islamic construction which was women would do their own thing around the house like maintain the garden, Engaging in petty trade but they were not allowed to go to coffee shops and be seeking the attention of another man. There was an Islamic ban which was “illicit sex outside wetlock” which mean that if you were to have sex outside of marriage you would be punished by then getting married instantly.

Aihwa Ong speaks on Female labor in free trade zones where mother would send their daughters to work in Industrial zones to help with expenses in the household. Where as their brothers wouldn’t have to worry about going to work because they were unemployed and were in school. Fathers would be ashamed to ask for help from their daughters but those who did had felt greatly ashamed to rely on their daughters to bring home money because they weren’t filling the roles as “father and husband.”

Daisy Deomampo speaks on how women in India have resisted reduction to simplistic stereotypes and binary oppositions between agents and victims the rich and the poor. Women everyday are challenging everyday gender norms, and are creating new opportunities for themselves and their families. (Deomampo 57) She explains how the balance in power between a man a women should be more on the mans side and that when a women gains more power her husband tends to challenge more to try to gain control over the wife. She states this when she speakes to a women named Asha she says “ The sudden increase in Asha’s earning potential as a surrogate prompted asha’s husband to react strongly to the subtle shift in the balance of power in their relationship.” (Deomampo 62) This is seen a lot when women try to make more for themselves their partners feel threatened and try to discourage their partners to stop making more than them.