Tudung Issue
by S.L. Pang @ Farah Abdullah

The Muslim Professionals Forum follows with interest the current debate on the ruling that requires non-Muslim female students at IIUM and parliament staff to don the tudung as initially raised in a Sunday Star editorial of 6 November 2005.

We agree with the Sunday Star editor’s objection to the ruling on parliament staff and commend the prompt intervention of parliamentary Speaker Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib.

However the IIUM ruling is a separate matter altogether. The autonomy of educational institutions to impose rules such as the dress code on their students must be respected. The IIUM is an Islamic academic institution. It would be most unusual not to expect a dress code that would reflect the teachings of Islam. For some 20 years non-Muslim students who freely choose to enroll into any of its faculties know this and duly comply with it.

Conversely Muslim students who choose to have their education in government supported mission schools must expect and comply with rules that they may not be comfortable with. This has nothing to do with fundamental human rights, of which there aplenty if the Sunday Star editor is genuinely concerned about them.

Let us not politicize this issue and leave it to the wisdom of the university authorities. Neither is this a polemic of whether the tudung is a measure of one’s Islamic piety as some quarters are so apt to raise whenever such an issue arises.

S.L. Pang @ Farah Abdullah Board Member
Muslim Professionals Forum
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Website : http://mpf.org.my