Khadijah Sidek
Khatijah Sidek or Che Khadijah Mohd Sidik was a Malay nationalist and politician during colonial Malaya and the elected leader of the Kaum Ibu in 1954. She was a key figure in the early history of the United Malay National Organisation and a vocal campaigner of women's rights and the education of girls.
Early life and political career
Khatijah was born in Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia to a Minangkabau family, known for their matrilineal heritage system. She received her education at a Dutch school in Sumatra before moving to Singapore in 1946 and soon after marrying a Malayan citizen. Prior to coming to Malaya, Khatijah was active in Puteri Kesatria, an anti-colonial women's group based in Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra. In 1953, she joined UMNO's branch in Johor Bahru following an invitation to survey Malay women's condition under British rule.Khatijah's rise in politics was reflective of the social changes experienced by women in the post-war years under Japanese occupation. Most women who were active in politics of the period benefited from the promotion of women and girl's education, women's paid employment outside the home, and the rural-urban migration Women who held positions of party leadership at the national, state, and division level were for the most part urban or suburban dwellers, and were either wives or close relations of political activists or members of aristocracy.
Women's rights campaigner
When Khatijah arrived in Malaya in the 1940s, she was disturbed by what saw as the great oppression of women. In her second visit to Singapore in 1947, she wrote in her memoirs that she was determined to help under-educated women by teaching them housekeeping skills and raising their political consciousness. She joined the women's welfare group, the Indonesian and Malay Women's Assembly, to agitate the liberation of Malay-Indonesian women who resided in Singapore. However, Khatijah's work with HIMWIM fell foul of the British colonial administration, and she was imprisoned under the Emergency Act between 1948 and 1950; during her imprisonment, she gave birth to a daughter.Upon her release from prison, Khatijah was exiled from Singapore, but was under a detention order to remain in Johor for ten years. With the support of Tunku Abdul Rahman, she was invited by the campaigner Ibu Zain to join UMNO; her position as a wife of a Malayan citizen made her eligible to join. In April 1953, she became a member of UMNO's congress in Melaka. At the congress, her proposal to increase the number of women in the congress was met with anger and disgust by the male delegates.
Leadership of Kaum Ibu UMNO
In October 1954, Khatijah successfully ran against Ibu Zain and the then Selangor Kaum Ibu UMNO chief Halimahton Abdul Majid to be elected leader of KI UMNO. During her time as leader, she travelled throughout the country, managing to win over many women to the section by convincing them she was much like them – Lenore Manderson has contended that Khatijah even shared the bed of village women she visited. Khatijah's frequent demands for an increased representation of women and her belief that there were formal barriers to women's political participation quickly saw her regarded as something as a troublemaker. Two weeks after her election as KI UMNO chief, Khatijah was expelled from the UMNO Johor Bahru branch on the grounds that she had divulged details of Supreme Council proceedings; Khatijah had earlier charged that women were deliberately being excluded from state election lists. The Tunku later determined that there was not enough evidence to expel her, and the UMNO Executive later rescinded her expulsion, but not without warning Khatijah to mind her conduct in the future.After presiding the leadership of KI UMNO at the national level for two years, she was again expelled for challenging the sexual politics of the party. Her dismissal was officially justified on the grounds that she breached party discipline and rules Khatijah succeeded Raja Perempuan Perlis Tengku Badriah who took the baton of leadership following the ill health of the latter's predecessor, Hajjah Zain Suleiman or Ibu Zain.