I refer to the malaysiakini report PAS under fire over dress code for non-Muslims .
If a person is pure of heart, it doesn't matter what women wear, do or look like. True decency comes from the heart and mind, not by adhering to some rigid rules. On the other hand, if a person has lustful thoughts, it also doesn't matter what women wear, do or look like. Impure and indecent thoughts will arise despite outwardly observing rules.
Perhaps a more pertinent question than asking whether women in Malaysia is dressed too sexily and lowering their dignity is why do some societies have so few criminals while some societies are infested with criminals and give rise to men who can't control their sexual urges.
Locking ourselves in an increasingly prison-like fortresses and dressing conservatively does not address the root cause of the problem. The robbers and thieves will still eye your property. Those sex-crazed perverts are still roaming the streets. Criminals generally target victims of opportunity. There is no correlation with how people dress or how much wealth they flaunt in public to being a victim of a crime.
Aleesha who wrote Women, respect yourselves used an analogy of locking houses to drive home the point of dressing prudently or prudishly. But the analogy is misplaced. An unassuming house without any burglar alarm will be visited more often by burglars than a well-guarded mansion.
A serial rapist will more likely target a conservatively dressed school girl, walking home alone at night, rather than picking on a group of sexily dressed women who travel in packs in broad daylight. If Aleesha thinks that by dressing conservatively, men of questionable character will not harass her, she is sorely mistaken.
A case in point is that some of our Malay male parliamentarians speaks disparagingly of their female counterparts despite them being properly attired. They display rude and brutish behaviour, making lewd remarks and show utter contempt of the fairer sex
News of how our police officers mistreated female detainees has also been well-publicised. The problem does not lie with women and how they dress. The problem lies with men and their upbringing, or the lack thereof.
By focusing on the victim's half of the equation, we are essentially giving up on getting to the root cause of the problem and resigning to accept the sorry state of our society as it is.
Contrary to popular belief, religious advocates are as much guilty of 'objectifying' women as advertisers, movies producers, and popular cultural idols. The advertisers exploit women to sell products, the religious advocates exploit women to sell religion. Exploitation comes in many forms, it does not necessarily involve sexy outfits.
One should not judge a person by the way they dress any more than a book by its cover. Whether they wear tudung or jeans, burqa or miniskirts, women should be accorded the same level of respect.
