Strategic litigation · Campaign

Tipping the scales: Can children in Malaysia be converted to Islam by just one of their parents?

19 December 2023

Are parents legally allowed to determine their children’s religion? In the eyes of the Federal Court, unilateral conversions are unconstitutional, and consent from both parents’ is required to convert their children. This is a result of Indira Gandhi’s nine-year battle through the courts to nullify the conversion of her children to Islam by her ex-husband, which was done without her consent. Although the ruling should have put an end to unilateral conversions, they still happen.


Tipping the Scales is a video series on landmark court cases in Malaysia that upheld the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief produced by MCCHR in collaboration with The Fourth.


Produced by Toh Nyon Nyin & Asma Badr.

Photo by Kai Schwabe, Getty-Images

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