Well, not that I had not feared this [link]. Thou (the moral police) cannot understand why Sania Mirza wears the clothes she does on a tennis court but (and I am greatly obliged!) thou are proud of her achievements. A veil with just eyes popping out should be good for the game of tennis. Add ray-bans too. Maybe, Sania should order for such a veil and then thou shall be happy. I am sure the same moral police wouldn't have allowed women play part in any affairs of the society a few decades ago. Not sure how better the situation is today. Given Sania's rise and today's working class it will sound preposterous if they said that girls should not play in public, so they now want to have a say in the dress she wears.
One argument they give is that
"It is a sport, not a fashion parade. If people are troubled by her dress she ought to cover herself and play."
Eye opener indeed! Would it be OK if she were participating in a fashion parade or is there a suitable dress code for a fashion parade too! People are troubled! Which people, the God fearing ones? All they can see are the 18 year old girl's legs?
"because it will offend sensibilities"
Whose sensibilities? The sensibilities of perverts who want the world to change but will not amend their habits.
"Actually the conservatives are confused. They're not sure how to react to a phenomenon like her who also has a strong religious background. Mercifully, the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom's rule on the mandatory veil concentrates only on Muslim women contesting elections and not on sports,"
Excellent! After all since when have women been participating in sports. Surely not before the above rule was created else they wouldn't have missed on the sports clause. Will the moral police realize that the times have changed and for the better? Isn't it time for them to move along too? A cliched question, I guess! And why should that rule matter to Sania Mirza even if it were to include sport's women? Shouldn't the law of the secular land take care?
A zillion times it has been mentioned that the dress women wear has nothing to do with any atrocities committed on them. Not that there is anything wrong with what she wears. The moral police needs to find better jobs for themselves. A "better employment opportunity scheme" should be created for them, on these lines maybe [ link], hopefully then they will happily feed on the economic fabric of India rather than the social one! Closing of dance bars in Mumbai [ link], restrictions on live-band joints in Bangalore [ link], show of "strength" on Valentine's Day [ link]. Independent India?? Hmm...
Sania, just hope you are not another casualty of the moral police! Way to go. Glory beckons you at the US Open!
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9 comments:
There is an almost unbridgeable gap between conservatives and the progressives.You don't understand them and they don't understand you.
Here is an article on this issue :
For the past few days we have been seeing various reports of the
criticisms about Sania Mirza, the new tennis icon, and her dress
sense. And also we have seen her response where in effect she is
reported to have said, "A lot of people with beards do wrong things
and nobody obects. So why do they object to my dressing? I pray five
times a day and how I dress is between me and Allah and I will
answer to Him."
I did not pay attention to all this since I have better things to dothan to look at half naked women being photographed with cameras
placed strategically to get the 'best shots'? Don't tell me thisdidn't occur to you and to all those who watch women's tennis that it is the soft porn that sells more than the tennis? Of such stupidinnocence is the world full. Anyway, as I said, I have better thingsto do so I did not pay attention until yesterday when a dear friend and someone who I have a lot of respect for told me about Sania
Mirza's statement and added, "After all, what she said is logical
isn't it? So why should anyone criticize her?" That raised the alarm
in my mind and I thought it is necessary to put things in
perspective for those who may have lost it.
The first reminder is to ask ourselves, "Who is right? Allah and His
Prophet (SAS) or me and my desires and logic?"
Sania Mirza says that she prays five times a day and then sees
nothing wrong with wearing clothes that reveal more than they hide?
And Allah says: "Verily the salah protects (separates) from all that
is shameful and prohibited.(Al fahshaae wal munkar)" So if we pray
regularly and yet do things which are shameful, don't we need to
question the quality of our salah? Or is the salah considered to be
an appeasement of Allah for the wrong that we do? Like committing
some wrong and then making an offering to the deity in a temple to
expiate the sin.
Secondly, do we accept that it is Allah and His Prophet (SAS) who
are the originators of the Law in Islam? If so, what is the law with
respect to dress? Both for women and men? Is it allowed to wear the
kind of clothes that Sania Mirza wears? Is there are special
dispensation for tennis? Or is Islamic Law more important than
tennis?
Thirdly for those who consider her statement 'logical'; to say that
this is a matter between her and Allah and so nobody has the right
or duty to point out the wrong; let me remind them of two things:
Sura A'al Imraan; Ayah; 110: "You are the best of people and have
been selected for the benefit of mankind. You enjoin (order) good
and forbid evil and have faith in Allah."
I ask these 'logical' thinkers, "What shall we do with this ayah?"
Allah says that the very purpose of the creation of the Muslim Ummah
is to enjoin good and forbid evil. And you say that to stay silent
when an evil role model is being created is logical. So is Allah
logical or are you logical? If this argument of staying silent in
the face of sin and evil is logical then why do we criticize the
alcoholic or the murderer, or the rapist or the embezzler? If we
follow Sania Mirza's argument and don't raise our voices against
vice, then the whole fabric of society will be destroyed and all
society will degenerate into chaos. This is the argument that all
the homosexuals and fornicators in the West use in favor of their
behavior; "consenting adults"; "life style choice". Their argument
is the same, "If I like what I am doing and the person I am doing it
with also likes it, then my action is right and my own business and
not the business of anyone else. Nobody has the right to criticize
me." The result is a society that has degenerated into a morass of
sin and filth and sin and filth are now protected by law and the
voices of sanity and purity have been silenced.
That is what Sania Mirza's 'logical' argument will also get us.
That is of course if we consideer sin as defined by Islam to be sin.
And filth as defined by Islam to be filth. But for those who live in
the cesspit, sewage is food, not filth.
Finally for her statement, "I will answer to Allah"........I can
only shiver in fright. It is a statement of supreme arrogance and
takabbur. She says fearlessly that she will answer Allah when the
Prophet (SAS) himself said to Ayesha (RA), "O! Ayesha, if Allah
takes anyone's hisaab (account) he will be destroyed." Ayesha (RA)
asked, "Even you Ya RasoolAllah?" And he replied, "Even I." And
Sania Mirza says that she will answer to Allah? And her followers
consider this argument 'logical'?
The accounting of Allah is a thing that all the Sahaba dreaded.
Sayyidina Omar Ibn Al Khattab (RA) lay dying from the stabbing wound
that he received while he was leading salah in Madinah as the
Khaleefatul Muslimeen. He was dying a shaheed. With a life record
that has no comparison. He had already been promised the Jannah by
the Prophet (SAS) during His lifetime. Yet as he lay with his head
in the lap of his son, Abdullah Ibn Omar (RA) he said to his
son, "O! Abdullah lay my head on the ground in the sand. Maybe Allah
will have mercy on Omar if He sees him lying wounded and dying on
the ground." And Sania Mirza says that she will answer to Allah? And
her followers consider this argument 'logical'?
I say to Sania Mirza and all those who consider her arrogance
logical, "Fear Allah, as it is His right to be feared. Stop
disobeying Allah. Make tawba and mend your ways and stop supporting
sin and evil. Or fear the day when you will stand before His Throne
and may actually have to answer to Him."
"all that is shameful and prohibited," eh? YOU decide that an athlete SHOULD be ASHAMED of her body and all the physical talents she has developed? There is nothing about her which is shameful. It is the beards like you, trying to drag women back to some fantasy old world where men had absolute control over women's bodies, who should be ashamed. If you have issues with your own human form and function, don't put them onto someone else who's got a healthier self-esteem than you.
I'm married to a recovering Muslim who has body and sex and shame issues which will take a lifetime to heal. Don't poison other people with your sickness.
boy sanjith,
U got some hait mail here!!! Iam ashamed when people dont have the cheek to stand up for what they say. Dowm with anonymous posts!!!
Rahul,
That is fine by me as long as there is no abuse that is no expletives used. Everyone has a way of expressing opinion. The anon post at 4:19AM is kind of funny. I cannot judge on first read who is he going against, the moral police or me. If he is going against me then it is kind of surprising as I thought he was saying what I am saying.
Although his second para is a bit weird. I lost him there.
As a practising Muslim I find myself confused on Sania
Frankly most tradtional Muslims like my parents would be horrified by her attire "Besharam" they would would call her ;-)
I failed to understand the second anonymous post though
Cool down anonymous ;-)
I was quoting and addressing the initial whacko who posted, not Sanjit! How could you think I was attacking you when I obviously agree with you? Sorry. I think you're right on, and the first commenter is insane. And I'm not a "he." :)
ok! so all of us have got that sorted out now; that we are all in the same boat. how i wish we had somebody here to give valid points on the other side too. After all, life is not all black and white, is it?
Is'nt the first anonymous posting of the other side ?
history_lover,
You are right.
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