What unusual punishments have you seen in Malaysia?

 

This is Farah Ann Abdul Hadi.

She is a female Malaysian gymnast who won not one, but 6 medals in South East Asian Games in Singapore in 2015. Two of the medals were gold.

Despite her achievements, she received numerous irrelevant comments to her achievements. Many comments were focused on how she was showing her aurat, an Islamic word describing human body parts that is not supposed to be shown to other people, especially opposite gender.

Many Islamic clerics lambasted her for not putting Islamic value first and prioritizing the sport instead.

Reported by Telegraph, one of the clerics, Harussani Zakaria, told the media, “Gymnastics is not for Muslim women. It is clear that exposing one's aurat and the shape of one's body is haram (forbidden in Islam). If Muslim women want to participate in gymnastics, they have to find outfits which cover the aurat and this, in turn, might not be suitable for the sport.”

Another cleric, Roszida Kamaruddin, head of the female wing of the National Muslim Youth Association, added that according to her although women should not be stopped from sports, but prioritizing Islamic value shall be done first, which in this case means the Gymnast need to wear clothes that cover her entire body.

There are of course a lot of more progressive muslims in the country who support her. However, it is still strange how a woman can be socially punished for following the rules in sport which by the way is created as such for safety purpose. How long do you think someone wearing long hijab will last practicing gymnastic before she breaks her neck?