COMMENT | The latest menstrual "period check" scandal is nothing more than control of women and state-sanctioned sexual harassment against them. It has nothing to do with religion or school discipline.

So, how much more of this sexual abuse will the Malay community tolerate? How much more public humiliation and mental torture can the Malay woman accept? Her shoulders may be broad, her patience may be as good as any saint's, and her temper kept in check, but perhaps, the time has come for her to be more proactive and more vocal about the abuses against her peers.

The "period checks" being conducted on schoolgirls to see if they are really menstruating has nothing to do with religion. In Islam, a menstruating woman is not allowed to perform the ritual prayer, nor to fast. The religion does not force checks on people to see what is stopping them from praying. It does not force you to pray if you do not want to. It does not encourage others to pry into your affairs.

All this begs the question, does the perpetrator really know