She was president of the
Malaysian AIDS Council from 1993 to 2005. An active socio-political
blogger, she also writes in her bi-weekly column called
Musings in
The Star newspaper since 1989. Some of her pieces in the column have been published in her books such as
50 Days: Rantings by MM, published in 1997 and
Telling It Straight, published in 2012 by
Editions Didier Millet. She is an active campaigner for women's rights. In 2006 she has described the status of
Muslim women in Malaysia as similar to that of the Black South Africans under
apartheid. Marina has called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientations in 1998 and 1999. She had appeared in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Documentary released in late 2009 with the rest of the members of the Mahathir Family. In 2010, she was awarded UN Person of The Year for her volunteer work in combatting HIV/AIDS. In 2016 Marina denounced the destruction of
Malaysian culture and traditions by what she perceives as '
Arab colonialism'. In January 2018, following a
viral incident of a Muslim man slapping a Muslim woman for not wearing a hijab, Marina warned that
Islamization of Malaysia will tear the country apart. She referred to Islamization as "another form of colonisation, a concept that has never been known to being non-violent". ==Personal life==