Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We should no longer be willing to blindly obey rulings and pronouncements made in the name of our religion especially when they are arrogant, unjust or cruel. The ulama do not have the divine mandate or right to be the sole authority to speak on matters which affect our religion or its interpretations.

We, as the ummah or congregation of the faith, should all be part of that conversation and not remain silent. It is our religion too.

I remember the exact moment that I became concerned and interested in women’s issues and their link between human rights and religion.

It was back in June 1997. The front page of a number of newspapers that month had showcased the results of a raid conducted by the Selangor Religious Department — the picture of three girls being manhandled and marched out by a group of grim-faced men and women.

Looking at pictures taken during the raid and the way they were treated, one could be excused for thinking that these girls clothed in evening gowns, satin sashes and clutching trophies in their hands were criminals of the worst variety. Their offence? Participating in a beauty pageant.

It was later revealed that the religious officers had watched the Miss Malaysia Petite finals from start to finish while lurking in the shadows and among the audience of the packed hotel ballroom.

At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, they proceeded with the arrests on stage and in front of television cameras, the media and a disbelieving audience. The charges? Under section 31 of the Syariah Crimes Enactment Selangor 1995 which stipulates that Muslim women are not allowed to take part in a beauty contest, and under section 2 of the same enactment for being indecently dressed.

After spending the night in the Subang Jaya police lockup, the three part-time models pled guilty in the syariah court and paid the fine.

History was made that night; this was believed to be the first time that individuals had been arrested in Selangor for participating in a beauty competition. It also set the tone for all future beauty pageants in Malaysia.

Organisers would from then on actively exclude Malay-Muslims girls from such competitions to avoid a repeat of what happened to the Miss Malaysia Petite finals. After all, it’s bad for business to have the morality stormtroopers barge uninvited and arrest the participants.

Future Yasmin Yusofs (Miss Universe Malaysia 1978) and Erra Faziras (Miss World Malaysia 1992) have since then been deterred from participating in such competitions. That is until the recent Miss Malaysia World 2013 pageant.

The 1997 incident to me was a clear demonstration of what happens when oppressive practices and thinking were allowed to grab hold and dictate our actions. Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had in fact, in the 1997 case, declared that the raid was “not the Islamic way.”

Rather than a compassionate, tolerant and gentle understanding and practice of the Islamic faith, the raid was symptomatic of how we have instead cultivated and grown a society which thrives on a form of religious tyranny focused on terrorising, humiliating, entrapping, judging and punishing others.

A few years ago a raid on a restaurant in the Klang Valley by religious authorities ended up with all the Malay girls present forced to line up and be eyeballed by officers to determine whether or not they were wearing indecent attire.

What is considered as “indecent”? Who decides what is “indecent”? This was not the first and certainly not the last example of how our moral sentinels have taken upon themselves in such a way to be God’s hammer and punish who they considered to be wicked. Perhaps for them, punishment in the afterlife for moral sins seems so unsatisfactorily distant, vague and takes too much time.

History has also demonstrated and proven consistently that when the seemingly pious feel the need to demonstrate their piety, their eyes fall upon the female form. There is something about a woman’s body which drives our religious organs into a state of frenzy thus requiring them to find ingenious ways to further control, regulate, repress and dictate.

The rights of women seem to be first ones to be trampled upon when zealots attempt to earn brownie points on their stairway to heaven.

Notice how men, on the other hand, seem to have absolutely no problems or run-ins with the law on the issue of aurat? How often have you seen couples from the Middle East, where the woman is covered top to toe in a flowing all-covering abaya while her male companion is in shorts and T-shirt? I have also yet to hear of a Malay male model or bodybuilder being thrown into a detention cell for allowing the outline of his crown jewels to be seen underneath his underwear or bikini briefs.

The issues at stake are more than just about whether or not there is a swimsuit segment. It’s whether Muslims have the right to partake in dialogue on their own religion, especially when the guardians of the faith are taking us down a dark road which encourages us to victimise, marginalise and persecute others.

Are we going to continue to allow institutions and persons to think or treat themselves as being unaccountable to the people and to hide behind the blanket of religion in order to avoid justifying their actions and to act with impunity?

We should no longer be willing to blindly obey rulings and pronouncements made in the name of our religion especially when they are arrogant, unjust or cruel. The ulama do not have the divine mandate or right to be the sole authority to speak on matters which affect our religion or its interpretations.

We, as the ummah or congregation of the faith, should all be part of that conversation and not remain silent. It is our religion too.

We shouldn’t be threatened with investigations simply for questioning the rationale for actions or ruling by religious authorities. That there should be no compulsion in religion is a central tenet in Islam.

When the Muslim finalists of the Miss Malaysia World 2013 spoke out about being eliminated from the completion and defended themselves whilst being supported by an indefatigable Datuk Anna Lim, I saw a glimmer of hope.

These girls were not willing to go quietly into the night and wanted to fight or, at the very least, to understand the rationale for the decision.

Sara Amelia Bernard’s note was particularly articulate and insightful. If you haven’t read it, please do. Sara, Wafa, Miera and Kathrina, you may not have been able to represent the country this time around but your good intentions, courage and example reminds us that we shouldn’t give up and that we need to continue to fight for change.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/azrul-mohd-khalib/article/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder#sthash.f8KVgTK9.dpuf