8/7/2019 To Cover or Not to Cover
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April 7-20, 201116 Upfront MALAYSIAN TODAY
To cover or not to cover,
that is the question, asksSu-Lin Chee
THE tudungor head-coveringever present intodays Malaysian
society,yet a touchy matter rarelydiscussed across religiouslines.
It draws a subliminalboundary between thosewho do and those
whodont, dividing society asmuch as other personalchoices like
smoking,
vegetarianism and drugs.ese are individualdecisions to consume,
yet
somehow have emotiveeffects upon those on theother side.
Malaysian documentaryfilmmaker Norhayati Kaprawi lis the veilon
this taboo with her filmAku Siapa (Who
Am I), which recently premiered at CentralMarket Annexe and HELP
Institute.
e latter, which I attended, drew a fullhouse of excited women;
the tension in theair was discernible. e screening
attractedrenowned figures like Datin Paduka MarinaMahathir, doyen
of womens issues Ivy Josiahas well as celebrities Datuk Sharifah
Aini andWardinah.
is 50-minute documentary openedwith the experience of a Malay
Muslim girl
who now aspires to be a fashion designer andgoes uncovered but
spent her educationalyears in a strict Muslim institution where
sheunderwent pressure to wear the tudung.
Aku Siapa then delved back in time toexplore Malay Muslim womens
means ofpresenting themselves over the decades.Photographs from the
early part of the 20thcentury through to the 50s, 60s and 70sshowed
even the heads of wives of religiousleaders uncovered or loosely
draped with aselendang(shawl).
Director Norhayati inferred to the turningpoint of popular
trends to be in the 80s, as aconsequence of the 1979 Iranian
revolution,and with strong influence from AnwarIbrahim and his
Angkatan Belia Islam
Malaysia (ABIM) movement.e movie spoke to various religious
scholars and academics about theirinterpretations of the Qurans
prescriptions.Statements ranged from the women mustcover everything
up or they will be raped-type view of PAS spiritual leader Dato
NikAziz, to aurat(body parts to be covered)being only the parts
that Adam and Evefelt ashamed of aer eating the forbiddenfruit, to
the idea that modesty was as muchwearing an attitude of modesty and
moralityas a physical covering.
Overall, I found the film entirelyenlightening and objective.
DirectorNorhayati quoted interviewees ratherthan narrated her own
opinion and it was
fascinating to hear from elderly womenwho had lived through the
changing tide ofopinion.
Surprisingly then, the post-screeningquestion-and-answer session
turned out
To Cover orNot to Cover
several disappointed voices.TV host and author Wardina
called
the film tudungbashing and professedhow aer being a model who
didnt wear atudung, the tudungliberated her.
Women [withouttudung] have to lookbeautiful, sexy I feelas if
those women in thebikinis are oppressedIn fact, I feel sorry foryou
but you feel sorry forme. Just because I chooseto cover up doesnt
meanIm an unintelligentbeing.
A 19 year old
student meanwhile,admitted how shestarted wearing thetudungat
nine yearsold because her
Upfront
mum, sister and aunt were wearing it andactually started
pressuring friends to wearit, though now she believes its a
personalchoice.
Opined Datin Paduka Marina Mahathiraer the Q-and-A session: I
think its anexcellent documentary and its a questionthat needs to
be addressed, the pressure thatwomen feel to cover up. Very oen
they dontknow why and cant quote the verse whichsays so. eyve been
told that its requiredby religion but when you talk to
scholars,they say theres a diversity of opinion. Our
people like to do a lot of things without reallyknowing the
religious basis for them.
What does Datin Paduka Marina thinkabout tudung-wearers feeling
negativelyportrayed in the film? I dont think that wasmeant to be
done, she responds. Nobody issaying that people who wear tudungare
bad,but its just giving voice to people who dontwear tudungwho have
been told they must.ese people who feel offended shouldempathise
with how we who dont wear thetudungfeel because thats how we are
madeto feel 90% of the time. ey are feeling this
just this evening!Indeed,Aku Siapa, as its title
suggests, seems to scratch thesurface on whats really a
depth
of complex issues that make upmodern Malaysian society.
Fromsexuality as part of identity, tocultural globalization, be
it
from the West or the MiddleEast, the film through thisengaging
subject, lis the
veil towards more dialogue.We talk about the right
to wear the hijab in Franceand Europe but I wanted
to highlight for once theMalaysian context, about thechallenges
that Muslim womenface here, explained Norhayati.
My message is very simple. Forthose who wear tudung, lets
not
be judgemental about those who dontwear tudung. And those who
dont wear
tudung, dont feel so bad about it.She quotes a bumper sticker
she saw in
Indonesia, Yang porno itu bukan tubuhku,
Tudung, hijab, burqah,chador wherein thedifference?
While tudung is the common Malayword for the head covering worn
byMuslim women, hijab is the Arabword literally meaning curtain
orcover.
e chadororchadaris more
of an Iranianstyle. It is a full-body-lengthsemicircle offabric
that issplit open downthe front, witha head-holein the top anddoes
not coverthe face. is cloth is tossed over thewomans or girls head,
but then sheholds it closed in the front.
e burqameanwhileis usually
understood tobe the entireenvelopingouter garmentwhichcomprises
thehijab as wellas the loosebody-covering(jilbb),
andface-veil(niqb). eburqa thuscovers the most out of all the
styles.
Documentary director Norhayati Kaprawie director with Datin
Paduka Marina Mahathir, Ivy Josiah, Wardina, discussionmoderator
Rafidah Abdullah and others
A campaign asking women to cover thechest with their hijabs
TV host and authorWardina before and aerdeciding to wear
thetudung
itu otak kamu [Whats pornographic is not
my body, its your mind], only to hoots oflaughter and cheers
from the audience.
For upcoming screenings, [email protected]
