No.1, January - April 2004

Editorial
The cover for this issue of Praxis is entitled, “Struggle for Equality”. The last century witnessed many important changes to the struggle for women’s call for equality – women’s suffrage, rise in women’s education and career prospects, recognition of women’s ability in the domestic and public spheres, so on and forth. The struggle has been hard, definitely it continues, as there are still many grounds yet to cover.

However, the struggle for equality does not only cover calls for the things that were mentioned above but it needs also to encompass the rights and equality for women whose issues and needs are obviously visible but neglected. Some of these issues are women who have different sexual orientations, women with disabilities, Christian women who made a conscious choice of remaining single and being or not being in motherhood, among many other self-determined decisions and choices. Is there a reason for labeling these as ‘controversies’ hence we will only adhere to those that we think we should struggle for and neglect those we think do not come under our “Christian” values? If we reject the stereotyping and definition of women set by the patriarchal institutions, we need also to acknowledge as well as respect the diversity of and the differences in women, more so for Christian women. We need to challenge ourselves not to stereotype or define women issues as those we usually and habitually advocate for. It is not a surprise when many of the secular women’s movements are actively going into issues that address the emerging realities while many of us in the Christian movement are lagging far behind. Are we one step slower due to our structural religious baggage that may contain an un-listening and un-empathetic ear ignoring the emerging realities of women?  

We would thus like to challenge the SCMers to go beyond what they have already been advocating for to look into emerging issues and realities that are faced by many women particularly Christian women. The SCM has always been providing a space and platform to think out of the box, let’s not lose this meaningful attitude and in the process, we hope the SCM will take up the challenge that aims for an encompassing, not divisive, arm of equality for humanity.  

Wong Yock Leng
Regional Women’s Coordinator