An invisible wall with a door that opens for men and rarely for women - that is how a Malaysian mother fighting for equal rights to confer citizenship to her child born abroad to a foreign father has described the state of discrimination in Malaysia following the latest Court of Appeal ruling.

Suriani Kempe, who led the rights group Family Frontiers in its ongoing legal battle against the government, said this is despite the fact that oftentimes Malaysian women were charged the same or more “entrance fee” to pass through the “door”.