ASTRO has devoted an entire channel to just showing Yasmin Ahmad's dedeications / movies / interviews between 8th to 31st August on channel 110. I was watching another channel when this advertisement for the channel showed up. I was bored so I switched to channel 110. They were showing the movie "Sepet" at the time and I watched it for quite a while until the movie reaches the part where 'Jason' visits his friend at the hospital.
His friend said (rough translation from Hokkien):"...wonder why is it so hard these days? It wasn't even so back in the olden days...We're supposed to be more civilized but yet..."
This struck me and made me think real hard...Back in the olden days, there were the Babas and Nyonyas, a inter-racial marriage between a Malay and a Chinese. Those days, there were no rule saying that you must convert to Muslim in order to marry each other, but these days, this has been a strict rule that most Islamic countries have to follow, as it is said that it is contained in the Quran. (I'm not an expert on this.) Why then in the Malaccan days, this was possible and yet Quran already exist at that time?
What I'm trying to rant out is that, the Muslim-man can marry a non-Muslim without her converting to Muslim while a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man at all costs. What if both parties have consented to each other's religion and each practice their own religion without affecting the love they have for each other? Wouldn't that be more important than having forced marriages just because a person has no other choice?
Is not that I've fallen for a Muslim girl / lady...I'm just intrigued by the fact that the Babas and Nyonyas were able live in harmony back then when we were less of a country and yet still be able to protect their heritage while modern age imposes us with all sorts of laws which removes us from the context of being human.
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