{{Short description|Malaysian writer}} '''Anis Sabirin''' (born 1 March 1936), also known as '''Anis Sabirin Ramzi''', is a Malaysian writer of fiction and nonfiction, known for her feminist writings in the 1960s.

== Early life and education == Anis Sabirin was born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on 1 March 1936.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Zaini-Lajoubert|first=Monique|title=Anis Sabirin|url=https://www.dictionnaire-creatrices.com/fiche-anis-sabirin|access-date=2021-10-05|website=Le Dictionnaire Universel des Créatrices|language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Salmon|first=Claudine|date=1977|title=Le rôle des femmes dans la société malaysienne selon Anis Sabirin|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-8613_1977_num_13_1_1349|journal=Archipel|language=fr|volume=13|issue=1|pages=321–326|doi=10.3406/arch.1977.1349}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Izharuddin|first=Alicia|date=2015-03-09|title=Anis Sabirin: suara feminis lantang yang terkubur|url=https://www.malaymail.com/news/opinion/2015/03/09/anis-sabirin-suara-feminis-lantang-yang-terkubur/855751|access-date=2021-10-05|website=Malay Mail|language=ms}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Chee|first=Tham Seong|date=1975|title=LITERARY RESPONSE AND THE SOCIAL PROCESS – An Analysis of Cultural and Political Beliefs among Malay Writers|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24489969|journal=Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science|volume=3|issue=1|pages=85–106|doi=10.1163/080382475X00094|jstor=24489969|issn=0303-8246|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Carian Umum |url=https://prpm.dbp.gov.my/Cari1?keyword=anis&d=243192& |access-date=2024-08-26 |website=prpm.dbp.gov.my}}</ref> After studying both Malay and English in grade school, she attended the University of Malaya, Singapore campus, now the National University of Singapore.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> In 1960, she was hired to work in the research department of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, the government body concerned with the Malay language.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

== Feminist writing in the 1960s == Sabirin emerged as part of a wave of major women writers in the 1960s, alongside Salmi Manja, Khadijah Hashim, Adibah Amin, and others. They worked to examine the changing roles of women in this period, which was marked by major cultural shifts. Sabirin's work in this period preceded a larger wave of feminist writing in Malaysia throughout the following decades.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Smyth|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2GdP6NNzCMoC|title=The Canon in Southeast Asian Literatures: Literatures of Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam|date=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1090-4|language=en}}</ref>

She began publishing stories and articles in various publications including ''{{Interlanguage link|Dewan Sastera|ms}}'', notably "Realisme Sebagai Satu Aliran Sastera" in 1962.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> Then, in 1966 she published her first short story collection, ''Dari Bayang Ke Bayang'' ("From Shadow to Shadow").<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The 20 stories in the collection examined the difficulties faced by both traditional women and modern ones, all of whom suffer in one way or another due to the pressures of societal expectations.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" />

Sabirin more directly explored the way cultural shifts were affecting women in her 1969 essay collection ''Peranan Wanita Baru'' ("The Role of the New Woman").<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /> She criticized social norms that restricted women, and she derided male writers' stereotyped depictions of women in existing literature, becoming one of the first Malaysian women writers to highlight this issue.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" />

== Later career in the United States == In the late 1960s, Sabirin was awarded a Fulbright and a P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship, so she moved to the United States and pursued a Ph.D. in economics at Claremont Graduate University.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1978|title=Dissertation Abstracts|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/154223|journal=Journal of International Business Studies|volume=9|issue=3|pages=135–138|doi=10.1057/jibs.1978.50|jstor=154223|s2cid=189838874|issn=0047-2506|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Musa|first=M. Bakri|date=2008-11-10|title=Changing Mindsets|url=https://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/11/10/changing-mindsets/|access-date=2021-10-05|website=Malaysia Today|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1969-01-23|title=PEO Holds Reciprocity Meeting|work=The San Bernardino County Sun}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1970-03-03|title=Sisterhood Will Fete Scholarship Student|work=Progress Bulletin}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1969-01-20|title=IPS student speaks to PEO members|work=Redlands Daily Facts}}</ref> Since then, she has lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles for several decades, working in the economic field.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAN463.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227012632/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnaan463.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 27, 2017|title=Women and Work in the Third World: The Impact of Industrialization and Global Economic Interdependence|publisher=Center for the Study, Education, and Advancement of Women, University of California, Berkeley|year=1983|editor-last=EI-Sanabary|editor-first=Naget M.}}</ref>

Though she was a pioneer of Malaysia's 1960s feminist wave, her later work has garnered less recognition.<ref name=":2" /> However, she has continued writing and kept a foothold in the Malaysian literary scene.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1998-04-09|title=Winners of Hadiah Cerpen Maybank-DBP|work=New Straits Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1997-06-18|title=Prize-winning short stories|work=New Straits Times}}</ref> ''Persona'', her 1994 collection of 16 short stories, centers on women building their own identities independently of men in their lives.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Zakaria|first=Ali|date=2002-02-20|title=Woman caught in the face of reality|work=New Straits Times}}</ref> In 2008, she published a memoir titled ''Dua Dunia'' ("Two Worlds"), which deals with her experiences in the United States.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Anis Sabirin|url=http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-nr2005018011/|website=WorldCat}}</ref>

== References == <references />

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabirin, Anis}} Category:1936 births Category:People from Johor Bahru Category:University of Malaya alumni Category:Claremont Graduate University alumni Category:Malaysian women writers Category:Malaysian feminists Category:Living people