Cheap stunt or not, OWC's guidebook for simultaneous sex sells like hotcakes

If publicity, no matter positive or negative, was the intention of Malaysia's Obedient Wives Club, then its newly-released sex guidebook is a roaring success. Despite drawing thunderous rebuke from women's groups, religious authorities and government leaders, sales are brisk - sex does sell.

But what is so controversial about the OWC's sex guidebook? Firstly, the Muslim community is still rather shy about discussing such matters in public. Then the title of the book was aimed to provoke Seks Islam, Perangi Yahudi untuk Kembalikan Seks Islam kepada Dunia or Islamic Sex, fighting Jews to return Islamic sex to the world.

However, it was the book's back cover that caught the public's eye. It suggested the joys of 'simultaneous' sex, which would amount to an orgy.

As spiritual leaders, the gift that Allah gives them is the ability to have sexual intercourse with all of their wives simultaneously. And if their wives are also spiritual persons, the better. Having sexual intercourse while flying somewhere is more enjoyable and easier than the actual physical act itself. And therefore, Abuya is in the process of transcending his wives to the spirit world.

These were the wordings on the back cover. Leaders of the club could not be reached for comment. OWC is a unit of outlawed Al-Arqam sect, which practises polygamy. Its leader, the late Asaari Muhammad, is pictured on the cover of the sex guide. OWC and Ikhwan Polygamy Club are two of the movement's spin-offs that use sex to ignite interest in their group and recruit members.

Uproar

Needless to say, women's groups in the country have hit out at the OWC, which is no stranger to controversy.

Earlier this year, the advice of OWC vice-president Rohaya Mohamad that women should behave like prostitutes in the bedroom so that their husbands would not stray hit the headlines in all the local papers and even the international media.

Muslim NGO Sisters in Islam acting executive director Ratna Osman slammed the group latest “cheap stunt”, accusing it of trying its name in the local and international media spotlight.

She said the group failed to look at the demands of society, which called for gender equality and progress in education.

“Apart from talking about a woman's subjugation to her husband and how to give him the best sex, they do not have anything concrete to contribute to society when we are facing many problems,” Star reported Ratna as saying.

Ratna also said that “nowhere in the Quran does it talk about marriage as just about sex and serving the husband as a master. It talks about love for one another, about kindness to each other.”

She questioned the source of the book, which quoted research claiming that women only gave their husbands 10% of what they wanted from their wives' bodies.

Ratna said SIS research showed that 64.8% of first wives said they were not informed when their husbands took another wife, thus leading to a feeling of betrayal and pain, and 53% of them cited an increase in domestic violence.

“How would OWC respond to this in their mission to teach good sex? Will OWC's book help these women in their problems?” Ratna asked.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Development Department or Jakim has said it would restrict the distribution of the book, which it viewed as “shameful” and “nonsensical”.

Below are the view of various other organisations reported by the Star:

Women's Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah described the book as a “tawdry way” to raise its profile. But she did not believe the book should be banned as people were entitled to their own opinion.

Empower executive director Maria Chin Abdullah said the stand taken by the OWC was “a slap in the face to women. Women have contributed greatly to the nation but they have diminished us to being mere sex objects."

All Women's Action Society programme manager Betty Yeoh said “it takes two hands to clap” and that both spouses must play their part in a marriage.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom said they would investigate the contents of the book.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the ministry believed that the club and what it stood for had undermined the important gains made towards gender equality in Malaysia.

“Should this publication be in contravention of the law whether civil or syariah, then the law here will take its course,” she said.

Malaysia Chronicle