{"id":26284,"date":"2019-09-10T03:20:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T03:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=26284"},"modified":"2019-09-10T03:20:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T03:20:56","slug":"islamic-organizations-should-embrace-fwas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/islamic-organizations-should-embrace-fwas\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic Organizations Should Embrace FWAs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allah says in verse 233, Surah Al-Baqarah, which\nmeans, \u201cThe mothers shall give suck to\ntheir offspring for two whole years if the father desires to complete the\nterm.  But he shall bear the cost of\ntheir food and clothing on equitable terms\u2026<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This verse shows that in Islam, mothers are encouraged\nto breastfeed their children and the ideal breastfeeding period is two years. Fathers\nare responsible for the living expenses of the mother and child during this\nperiod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on this verse, most Muslim parents decide to\ngive their children breast milk. Other than being very convenient, breastfeeding\nis also cheap and has a positive effect on the mother and baby\nrelationship.  Moreover, breast milk is\nalso believed to be the best milk for baby’s growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breastfeeding process usually runs smoothly until the\ntime comes for working mothers to return to work. If the employer provides a\n\u201cNursing Room\u201d at work, then it would be easy for mothers to pump their milk\nand store it in the refrigerator provided. However, if the employer does not\nprovide such facilities, then mothers need to figure out a way to solve this\nproblem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNursing Room\u201d is a form of Flexible Working\nArrangements (FWAs) as one of the employers\u2019 effort to help employees achieve\nwork-life balance.  Other than nursing\nroom, other forms of FWAs are flexible working hours; flex-place; part-time\nemployment; increased maternity and paternity leave; career breaks; flexible\nleave options; and job sharing. In the West, variety of FWAs are being offered\nby employers and in some European countries for example, it is being regulated\nin order to help employees to achieve work-life balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Malaysia, there are mothers who face challenges to\ncontinue breastfeeding after returning to work, especially when the employer does\nnot provide a nursing room at work.  Mothers\nwho have their own room at the office will have no problem. However, for mothers\nwho do not have their own room at the office, they might pump their milk in a\nfriend’s room or in the surau<\/em> or\nperhaps in the toilet. In addition, they have to bring breast milk storage bag\nin order to maintain the quality of the milk until they reach home.  Imagine if any of these mothers are assigned\nto work out-station for a few days. Will or should their milk go to waste?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some, the solution is simple. They say, \u201cThat is\nthe reason why Islam emphasizes a woman’s place is at home. If they stay at home,\nit’s easy to breastfeed. No need to pump the milk, no need to bring the breast\nmilk storage bags and employers do not have to provide nursing room at work.\nAfter all, husbands are responsible for the family living expenses.\u201d  Is this true? \nIs this simplified solution Islamic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Johnson & Johnson in Malaysia won the\n\u201cBest Lean Organization\u201d for the Life at Work Award for one of its initiatives\nnamely \u201cBreast Milk Shipping Programme\u201d. This programme supports nursing\nmothers during business travel by shipping the breast milk from the hotel or\nworksite to home.  All shipping costs are\nfully funded by the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Life at Work Award 2018, Hong Leong Bank won\nthe Best New Entrant (Malaysian Organization) for its initiatives in providing\nfully equipped nursing room at their branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironic, isn\u2019t it? On one hand, it is the Qu\u2019ran<\/em> which clearly states that parents\nare recommended to suckle their children until the age of two, yet it is the non-Muslim\ncompanies who are eagerly supporting their employees for this cause.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned earlier, all these FWAs are intended to\ncreate and support work-life balance so that employees can work without\njeopardizing their responsibilities towards their family. The fact that these\nemployers are helping their employees to take care of the family means that\nthese employers care about their families and consider it part of their\nresponsibilities. In other words, in addition to care for their workers, these\nemployers also care for their workers’ families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reminds me of one of the attributes of maqasid al-syariah<\/em>, which is \u201cPreserving\nthe Progeny\u201d. Besides preserving life, intellect, religion and property, Islam\ndemands that Muslims preserve their progeny. Muslims are prescribed to preserve\n their progeny, not only at the\nindividual level, but also at the institutional level, starting from the\nsmallest institutions in the community \u2013 the family, the schools, the employers\nand the nation should strive to preserve these five important things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, isn\u2019t it ironic? It is Islam, through the maqasid al-syariah<\/em> that urges us, as an\nindividual or an institution, to protect the progeny, and yet, we the Muslims\nand Muslim organizations do not seem commit ourselves to FWAs. \n\nIt\nis high time for Muslim bodies to embrace FWAs. \nIf the West do it for work-life balance, let us do it in the name of\nAllah SWT.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allah says in verse 233, Surah Al-Baqarah, which means, \u201cThe mothers shall give suck to their offspring for two whole years if the father desires to complete the term. But he shall bear the cost of their food and clothing on equitable terms\u2026\u201d This verse shows that in Islam, mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their children and the ideal breastfeeding period is two years. Fathers are responsible for the living expenses of the mother and child during this period. \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-225","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}