Wednesday, December 06, 2006

The Devil Wears Prada

Sigh, the Kota Baru Municipal Council had warned that both Muslim and non-Muslim women working in retail outlets and restaurants in Kelantan to dress decently or be fined up to RM500. The offending clothes would I assume, include tight fitting blouses, jeans, shorts and mini-skirts.

Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has defended the policy, saying it will help protect their virtue. He argued that a “woman who wears an indecent outfit does not respect herself, so how can she expect men to respect her?”

He even ironically compared a woman's virtue to money, that they are both "precious" and hence needed to be kept under wraps. Taking the analogy further, the Menteri Besar might as well issue a ruling to lock up all the women in the state, just as you would deposit your cash under lock and key in a bank, to "protect" them! (Oh, they are thinking about it already?)

The Kelantan PAS government just refuses to accept the reality that the protection of the fairer sex has little to do with the way they dress. The incidence of rape and incest is little different between say, liberal Penang, and the modest and conservative state of Kelantan, despite obvious vast differences in dressing. There were 71 and 90 reported cases of rape in 2005, despite having similar population of 1.47 and 1.4 million respectively. In addition, there was 4 and 10 reported cases of incest, in Penang and Kelantan respectively in 2005.

For the Kelantan PAS government, it has never been about restraining men from their thirst for lust (for this was "human nature", according to the Menteri Besar). It is always about women and how they dress, for as they say, the Devil wears Prada.

3 comments:

Full Time Mom said...

Hi Tony P

Rather than trying to change old people (which is very difficult!), we should focus on influencing the young – our children, first and foremost.

We need to teach them good, desirable values; that character is what makes a person. Not the clothes they wear (or don’t wear).

On a slightly wider topic, it’s equally important to be involved in our children’s lives. Monitor the input they get from friends, classmates, teachers, neighbours, and most of all, TV – so that any negative or undesirable values that they may pick up from their circle of influence can be nipped in the bud and corrected.

For example, we may not be racists at home, but are they picking up racist vibes from their circle? We may teach them not to litter, but are their friends doing it?

Here's to a better future for our children,
Full-Time Mom

Anonymous said...

This comes as no suprise from the religious zeolots in the Kelantan. The question now is, will the equivalents from Muslim majority towns and city councils will do the same in the future? We all know that both PAS and UMNO are trying to outdo each other and see who is more religious than the other. It truly saddens me as things like this turns out against the minorities in most of the cases. Can we declare a state of neutrality, just like we did during the Cold War between the West and Communists Soviet and China? Hmm..

Anonymous said...

.. according to an online report, a US university student did a internet related survey .. and it was his understanding from that whatever sample study he did..that pornography leads to less rape..as a result of more access to internet.

sigh..whatever it is..it's still very evil demonian..

maybe he should consult the psychologists for their views