Siti Kasim dreads fate of Malaysian Muslim women as swimwear fashion make its presence in Saudi

 

SOCIAL activist and lawyer Siti Kasim has expressed concerned that Muslim women in Malaysia are finding their freedom more restrictive at a time when Saudi Arabia which is deemed an ultra- conservative Muslim nation “has allowed women to enter beauty contests and even have swimwear fashion show”.

“No beauty contests for Muslim women (in Malaysia) and you are vilified if you don’t conform to their idea of a Muslim woman,” she penned in a Facebook post while referring to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) article entitled “Saudi Arabia Stages ‘Historic’ First Swimwear Fashion Show”.

“Faith and beliefs are personal and should not be dictated and forced by anyone let alone by government agencies. Period.”

For the uninitiated, thanks to the massive liberal social reforms as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 mooted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a.k.a. MBS, Saudi Arabia has embarked on a women emancipation/empowerment policy starting with the abolition of a law that prevented women from driving in 2018.

As biomedical engineer Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Arab woman to go to space when she joined a private company’s mission to the International Space Station in May 2023, Saudi women now have the right to register for divorce and marriage, apply for passports and other official documents or to even travel abroad without their guardian’s permission, among others.

To a question posed by a male Muslim commenter as to what is the meaning of freedom “when women become slaves to male desires as they supply their bodies for public consumption”, Siti Kasim contended that women should be left to judge by themselves answer to the question.

“So, are women who want to wear whatever they like considered slaves and supplier of their bodies for public consumption? That simply shows what sort of mindset you have. Whether women want to wear a purdah to cover their whole body or if they want to wear as little clothes as they want, the decision should be theirs and theirs alone.”

Added Siti Kasm who turned a women’s right advocate: “The way you are stating things is as if women who wear less clothes are ill-informed and offensive. Only men like you objectify and sexualise women. The problem in this world with regard to women is actually men like you. Not all men have the mindset that you have. ”

Surely, Siti Kasim’s argument has rubbed off on a fellow Muslim woman who, too, ticked off the male chauvinist commenter as she blamed men for becoming “slave to their own lust”.

“No one is selling anything. If you are narrow-minded because your own lust, it’s your own issue. What a woman wants to wear is up to them. Don’t put your blame on us.,” added the female netizen. – Focus Malaysia