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Former Malaysian AIDS Council president to speak, March 28
Posted March 19, 2006; 08:01 p.m.
Marina Mahathir, an author, journalist and until recently president
of the Malaysian AIDS Council, will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 28,
in McCosh 50. Her lecture is titled "Fatal Confluences: Islam, Gender
and HIV/AIDS in Malaysia."
Mahathir, the daughter of Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's former prime
minister, is an activist for HIV/AIDS awareness as well as other social
causes. During her leadership of the Malaysian AIDS Council, which was
established to coordinate the work of nongovernmental organizations
fighting the Asian AIDS epidemic, she became an outspoken critic of
political, economic and cultural policies that make certain populations
especially vulnerable to HIV infection.
As a Muslim, she is particularly interested in the relationship between
gender, religion and the general welfare of women. Her lecture will
present a case study of the conservative state of Kelantan in northeast
Malaysia, where religious mores and socio-economic factors have
combined to create an environment particularly perilous for women.
The event is designated as a Walter E. Edge Lecture and is sponsored by Public Lecture Series.