Malaysia to Ban Sex Manual by ‘Obedient Wives Club’ Group

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Samsul Said/ Reuters

Ishak Md Nor, 40, (2nd L) and his two wives, Aishah Abdul Ghafar, 40, (C) and Afiratul Abidah Mohd Hanan 25, who are members of "The Obedient Wife Club", share a light moment with their children after the club's launch in Kuala Lumpur. A group of Malaysian Muslim women on Saturday launched "The Obedient Wife Club" aiming to teach wives how to please their husbands so as to reduce incidences of domestic abuse, infidelity and divorce.

An Islamic sect known the Obedient Wives Club is putting out a sex manual for women who want to ensure a happy marriage. Going by the name of the club alone, you should be able to glean what the book’s advice for women consists of.  The title of the 115-page manual is, of all things, Islamic Sex. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Malaysian government wants to ban it.

The OWC was launched in Jordan this year, but quickly spread with branches in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Britain. The group has, naturally, been controversial, with its suspect manifesto that Islamic women should be submissive and adopt a “stop, drop and roll” attitude about pleasing their husbands in the bedroom. Supposedly this strategy is effective when it comes to curbing society’s ills such as prostitution, abuse, divorce and infidelity.

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But in Malaysia, where women hold prominent roles in government, the group has been particularly derided for being regressive. And now with the release of the book, Malaysia’s Islamic affairs department has recommended that the government ban the manual, claiming that its premise is misleading about official Islamic doctrine.

But the club doesn’t see it like that. According to the Guardian, “Club leaders, who argue that a wife should serve as a ‘good sex worker’ and a ‘whore’ to her husband, showed the book to journalists last month in an effort to dispel what they called misconceptions that it was obscene and demeaning to women.”

The club aimed to prove that the book doesn’t contain graphic images, as they seem to think that that’s what people would find most offensive rather than the manual’s entire thesis. Granted, the book doesn’t contain graphic images, but Malaysian officials aren’t budging; anyone who’s caught with the book could be fined $1600 USD.

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