Women's activist 'Toni' dies

KUALA LUMPUR: Women's rights activist Zaiton Mohamed Kassim, 41, aka "Toni Kassim", died early yesterday from deodenal cancer. She was staying at her sister's house in Taman Mesra, Batu tiga. Prayers were held at the Jamek Fastabiqul Khayrat mosque in Shah Alam before burial at the nearby Pusara Kenangan Abadi Muslim cemetery at 1pm. The funeral was attended by many NGO personalities, including Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez and Women's Aid Organisation president Ivy Josiah and political leaders PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Subang MP R.Sivarasa, and Kota Damansara assemblyman Dr Nasir Hashim.

"She was a great person with strong beliefs and firm principles" said Fernandez, in expressing her grief over Toni's death.

Toni worked in the area of social justice for 15 years, focusing particularly on Muslim women's rights and health rights of vulnerable groups.

She demonstrated this when volunteering a significant amount of time and resources to help women survivors during the tsunami in Aceh.

"It was impossible to meet Toni and not be impacted by her passion, energy and forthrightness", Transparency International Malaysia executive director Richard Yeoh said.

"Civil society must ensure that we press on and do something to keep the memory of her short but committed life burning in our midst."

One of the chief training consultants with Sisters In Islam (SIS), Toni remained an active member of the organisation despite her many commitments, SIS senior programme manager Maria Chin Abdullah said.

"She was a passionate champion of women's rights and her talents were both in training and organising," she said.

"But she also felt she would be able to contribute more as a candidate to directly impact politics and ensure changes be made in the area of gender mainstreaming, human rights and democracy."

Maria Chin was Toni's former campaign manager.

Toni first ran as an independent woman parliamentary candidate in the 1999 general election on the gender platform.

She was again fielded under the Women's Candidate Initiative as an independent candidate for the 12th general election on March 8 but pulled out when her health took a turn for the worse.