Law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said PAS leaders may have broken several laws by comparing women leaders to animals and citing the Quran in defending the analogy.
In a post on X, Azalina said the PAS leaders may have breached several provisions, namely Sections 509, 504 and 298A of the Penal Code.
The three sections deal with insulting the modesty of a person, intentional insult to provoke a breach of the peace, and actions that cause disharmony, respectively.
She did not name the leaders, but uploaded two articles which identified Maran PAS Youth information chief Salman Al Farisi and party deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
“To whom it may concern: if you are still comparing women leaders to animals in 2025, congrats!
“Do better, or lawyer up,” she said, in an apparent sarcastic jab at Salman and Tuan Ibrahim, who had defended the youth leader.
Azalina also said those who incorporated religion into their argument could be committing an offence under Section 507B of the Penal Code that deals with insulting words.
On Monday, Malaysiakini reported Salman as comparing men to bulls, and women to cows when emphasising the importance of men in leadership roles, based on his experience in livestock farming.
Salman had claimed that a cow would usually lead the herd, while bulls serve to protect the herd.
He said society should, therefore, avoid elevating women to leadership positions, adding that men should assume leadership roles in accordance with Quranic teachings.
Earlier today, Tuan Ibrahim defended Salman, saying such analogies were used in literary works and not meant to degrade women.
“In Islamic literature in the past, there are works such as ‘Kalilah wa Dimnah’, which are filled with analogies and stories about animals, used to convey teachings and moral values,” he was quoted as saying, adding that he saw nothing sexist about the remark.
