Marina Mahathir has accused Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa and Bersatu supreme council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan of trying to distract from the demands made at yesterday’s Women’s March by focusing solely on the presence of LGBT participants.

“I’m calling you out Wan Saiful and Mujahid. You are trying to distract from addressing very real women’s issues by focusing on only one of many demands at the Women’s March. Shame on you,” read one tweet from the social activist, which was accompanied with the hashtags #Misogyny and #You'reADisgrace.

"I'm really beginning to believe that men really believe that women’s issues are trivial, and that’s why they will find any excuse to not respond to demands to address anything that truly affects women. It’s called misogyny!”

‘Disproportionate reporting’

On a similar note, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) took aim at the “disproportionate” focus on LGBT issues in Utusan Malaysia and Sinar Harian's reporting of the Women’s March. In particular, the CIJ took issue with the usage of the words “cemar (pollute)" and “suntik (inject)” in the headlines used by the two Malay-language dailies.

“The sensational manner in which Utusan and Sinar reported the march, their demonisation of the LGBTIQ community and their allies, have led to strong statements by individuals in positions of authority to call for broad-based rejection and opposition to the rights of LGBTIQ persons.

“In doing so, the newspapers were neglecting their duty of fair reporting, and appear to have been deliberately inciting hatred towards an already marginalised and at-risk community.