Farah Ann and the ‘aurat’ trolls

To most people, watching gymnastics is simply just about that. Seeing human beings reach the peak of physical fitness and perform feats which only a few of us can aspire to. This is a great pleasure for spectators including myself. Except of course, if you’re a conservative, closed-minded Malaysian Muslim spectator. In that case, you would be focussing on the gymnast’s crotch rather than her performance!

That is exactly what happened to Farah Ann Abdul Hadi. This extremely talented young lady wow’ed the nation with her impressive performance at the SEA Games. Unfortunately, when her victory photo came out, so did the trolls. They complained about her gymnast’s costume, claiming one could see the outline of her private parts. They must have really looked up close!

The nation responded with a tide of support for Farah Ann. Even Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin chimed in by saying that it is Allah who should judge Farah Ann, not these trolls. This sounds more like a compromise than I am comfortable with. Farah Ann did not do anything wrong, as far as I’m concerned. The perception that she acted outside the faith at all is a matter of subjective judgement bound to a set of cultural norms which are wholly alien to our Malaysian culture.

It is almost a cliche these days to talk about how the headscarf came to Malaysia. Scores of Malaysians of the moderate or liberal variety lament about this daily on social media. A now famous picture posted by our liberal doyen Marina Mahathir depicts four lovely Malay women of yesteryear. The black and white photos were probably from the 1950s or 1960s. P. Ramlee’s time, I first thought to myself. Yet despite the lack of headwear, there was nothing in the women’s demeanour that was sexually suggestive. Just like in the gymnastics performance.

Then over the course of thirty or so years, the Islamisation process took root and Malay-Muslim women started wearing clothes which they perceived to be Islamic. If we see Malaysian movies or documentaries, paying attention to the background people and not the actors themselves, we will see that back in the day (we’re talking as late as the 70s and early 80s), Malay-Muslim women in general did not wear the headscarf. Perhaps an exception would be older women who went for the hajj and suddenly have the need to become pious. However in general, it was simply not the case. Things have changed a lot since then.

People often use the term “Islamic clothing” when referring to the hijab (the headscarf or tudung), abaya (long Arabic dress) or burqa (the long dress added to which is a face veil). There is or perhaps was a video on YouTube which I watched some years ago called “this is not niqab” (niqab is the face veil). The woman in the video was trying to make the point. Even the niqab wasn’t enough since it exposed the eyes and the eyes may be used to allure men! So then this woman suggested wearing a wire mesh over the eyes but even then men would be allured so she opted to cover one eye fully and leave the other meshed. Why not just not show up at all? Disappear completely and no one would notice anyway!

Is this type of clothing really “Islamic clothing”? Its proponents seem to think so! However in order to make a case for this, we should go back to the Quran which to all Muslims represent at least the first source of Islamic law. Very strangely, in the Quran, we would not find any of these clothing items! The closest we come to is the hijab (see chapter 24, verse 31) but only an act of some logical gymnastics (ironically) can justify it. The actual statement is for women to cast their cloth over their chests. Proponents of the hijab say that the word for “cloth” really means “head cloth”. Even if this is the case, there is no command to actually wear the hijab at all! These clothing items deemed “Islamic” are nothing more than cultural artefacts from ancient Arabia. There is nothing really Islamic about them. If anything, they make Muslim women targets for haters (since they are so easily identifiable) and worse, they erase the women’s identity completely. I respect anyone’s choice to wear them but I must say, please don’t judge those who do not. The Quran focuses on modesty and the first mention of clothing is to do with piety (7/26). No specific items of clothing are mentioned at all.

In the case of Farah Ann, what we need to consider is fitness of purpose. Will Farah Ann’s clothing help her to fulfil her role as a gymnast? Clearly it has as she has won gold medals! Had she been wearing a burqa, the judges would not even know if it was her! And this is why the Islamofascists (led by the notorious mufti Harussani Zakaria) are now telling Muslim women to even leave gymnastics in order to be “modest”. The good news is of course, more and more people are resisting these Arabic cultural understandings of Islam.

Farah Ann has now become an unlikely hero for people who can think for themselves and are not obsessed with genitalia. Her Facebook page already now has thousands of likes so for her trolls, it has really backfired for them. These trolls should examine their mindsets. Even contemplate the saying “When a pickpocket is among a crowd of saints, all he sees are their pockets”. – June 17, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.