Homeless by Choice by MISLINA MUSTAFFA

HOMELESS BY CHOICE – a research on the architecture of a Woman’s identity in Malaysia. Does a house/home nourish one’s existence? ;or is it a parasitic institution, where one is mutilated continuously by the expenses of its many repetitious favors? If it is, then why does a house/home never ceased to be one of the most important benchmark of a person’s stability? If a house/home reflects the ideal of security and stability in the form of materials that symbolizes permanence, then what will be the real deal if one decided to be mobile and impermanence; especially when one is a woman in her forties; where marriage is sacred and a house/home is a kingdom; will one be able to survive the longing of having one’s ‘own space’? How far will one go in tolerating with constructed values of one’s society upbringing? ‘Homeless by Choice’ is an antithesis how a Woman should be. Beginning with a question on ‘the myth of security’ that the government and consumerism imposed on the people by promising happiness in a form of a ‘house’; followed by her vast reading on feminism view of the role of a woman in the society and the restrictions of her social-constructed growth of a woman’s role that nourishes the gender inequality; Banned for a while from appearing on main media outlets, she abandoned her 20 years of acting career and now actively collaborating with international artists and local NGO on gender, human and animal rights issues and recently invited to the international program, TEDxKL Women to give a talk on her ‘Homeless by Choice’ project. And now, this Public Enemy; suffered and survived from vast demonization by the media of her involvement in human rights activism and political movements throughout her quest; is more than ready to document her experience and findings in a written format that includes photos and scribbles from her personal journal and diverse commentaries and critiques from her society; and is ready to share with the world of an alternative way of life and the consequences she is currently going through right now.