Manner of dress — and earthquakes

The writer is an artist based in London. (sarah.akhtar@tribune.com.pk)

Earlier this year in April an Iranian Islamic cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, implied that women who dress immodestly lead young men astray and cause adultery, which in turn increases the occurrence of earthquakes. It goes without saying that this logic was absurd and the man’s insinuation quite distasteful.

Jennifer McCreight, an American student, carried out a novel experiment to test this theory, recruiting 100,000 women to dress ‘’immodestly’’ on April 26, 2010. Some media outlets sensationalised the outcome, and although an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale did occur in Taiwan that day, it was nothing out of the ordinary. This ‘experiment’ clearly showed that attire and manner of dress had nothing to do with earthquakes as they did not increase significantly on that day. Earthquakes take place every day and on average an earthquake of between 6 and 6.9 magnitude occurs about 134 times a year, providing the basis of a 37 per cent probability of it occurring on any given day, whether or not large numbers of women had dressed immodestly.

Most people would agree that authority figures should be held accountable; so how do these clerics, who are role models and community educators, get away with such statements? As for inciting hatred, I recall an incident some years ago while walking with an American friend in the then Afghan market close to Lal Masjid in Islamabad, hearing the Friday sermon, horrified as the imam told the people gathered for prayers in Urdu to “kill all Americans”. Now, even if one were to disagree with American policy and its application in this part of the world, why ask ordinary people to kill Americans. Does Islam teach this?

As long as there are such clerics, the longer it will take to change the negative perception that Islam has in most parts of the world. Akin to the Dark Ages when Christian clerics were much the same, all that comes from this type of behaviour is negative views, potential for violence and ignorance. This type of misconception perpetuated by so-called authorities on religion should be unacceptable to all sensible people. If one follows a religion, they should make it their business to stop its defamation in the eyes of those who follow other belief systems. And emphasis for this should be to stop the misconception from within the community.

Further on this topic is a report according to which Tehran’s police chief has issued a warning that women with fake tans will be arrested. The trend, prevalent in the UK and the US, has caught on in Iran and despite the modest dress laws in place, authorities have deemed tanning to be sinful and believe it should be done away with. Surely there are far more important matters for a state to concern itself with than the fake colour of a woman’s skin?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2010.