Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin seems to be sticking up for the national athletes under his care in defiance of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department, by saying that sportsmen (or more to the point, sportswomen) representing the country don’t have to abide by JAKIM’s guidelines on “decent” attire.
This was a sharp rebuke of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic Affairs Jamil Khir Baharom’s announcement on Monday that sports attire for national athletes would be reviewed, in order to make them more “syariah-compliant”.
“It’s up to the athletes to follow the guidelines and there’s no compulsion to cover up… I hope this settles it.
“We have to remember some sports attires are regulated by the sports federations … besides, the athletes only wear the attire during competitions, they don’t wear it every day,” said Khairy yesterday, as quoted by The Star Online.
Last week, national gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi became the target of a massive online furore over the “inappropriate” uniform she wore at the Singapore SEA Games.
Despite winning two gold medals for Malaysia, Farah Ann was heaped with scorn for competing in a leotard that revealed her “aurat”, or Islamically-mandated areas of bodily modesty.
However, thousands of Malaysian netizens came to her defence, advocating reasonable discourse and tolerance, and calling out the inherent sexism and hypocrisy behind attacking a female athlete for her attire but leaving male sportsmen unscathed.
Khairy himself seemed to pick up on this, and commented on the double standard.
“Male athletes don’t get this kind of attention, body-builders wear much more revealing trunks,” he said.
The BN and UMNO Youth chief also asked for the public (and other parts of the ruling party to which he belongs, presumably) to refrain from casting aspersions on the national gymnast’s character and personal faith.
“Farah is an adult and has been brought up well. She knows what she’s doing and old enough to decide for herself.
“The critics can look elsewhere … or, if they cannot contain themselves, we will have to ban them from entering stadiums.”
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