Malaysia elects first female chief justice as activists seek reform
Women's rights groups hope Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat's appointment will help tackle low conviction rates in cases such as rape and domestic violence
Kuala Lumpur — In a rare move for Asia, Malaysia has appointed its first female top judge, leading to calls from human rights activists on Friday to reform the country's judiciary and improve the low conviction rates for crimes against women. Widely seen as a progressive judge, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, an ethnic Muslim Malay woman, was unveiled as the country's next chief justice by the prime minister's office on Thursday. There has been a rising number of female judges in Malaysia's top courts in recent years but women's rights groups hoped her appointment would help tackle the low conviction rates in cases such as rape and domestic violence. "We hope there will be more justice for women who go to court," Majidah Hashim, a spokesperson for the Kuala Lumpur-based women's rights group, Sisters in Islam, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Among the 10,810 cases of domestic violence reported between 2015 and 2016, only 7% resulted in a conviction, according to official figures cited i...
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