August 30, 2005
Dress Ups
Apparently, Balinese jails are very spiritual places, where one might reconnect with God:
SYDNEY model Michelle Leslie swapped catwalk couture for a Muslim chador yesterday in her bid to seek mercy from Indonesia's court system.
Since her arrest one week ago after police allegedly found two ecstasy tablets in her handbag at a dance party, Leslie has consistently using a sarong to cover her head, shielding herself as she walks from the Polda holding cells to the police building.
But Leslie yesterday emerged from her Bali jail cell wearing the top of a full black Muslim head covering – a chador – her face hidden and black netting covering her eyes.
Members of Leslie's legal team confirmed that the 24-year-old was a Muslim but refused to comment on any details of her religion, or whether she had grown up Islamic or if it was a recent conversion.
Edit: According to here, she's been submitting to Allah for over a year
And, when asked the reason for the radical dress, members of her legal team and the family's spokesman, who has now arrived in Bali, gave differing accounts.
Her Australian lawyer Ross Hill, when asked whose idea it was to wear the chador, said: "Well, that's just something that we all thought about, just to keep her covered, you know. We are just trying to keep things down."
Then, more than an hour later, responding to a list of written questions from the media, family spokesman Sean Mulcahy said: "Michelle, as a Muslim, made the decision to wear the hijab to find solace with God, not for any other purpose."
Here she is:
So pretty.
Not sure how she sees anything, though. Must be like dressing up in those big mascot outfits - you know, where you have the little black patches to see through:
Still, I think I prefer the old Michelle...
Local Muslims aren't happy:
Sean Malcahy, a spokesman for the Leslie family and her lawyers, said the media's reporting of her attire had been inflammatory and triggered outrage among Muslims in Australia.
Ummm.... "Media Reporting of the attire was inflammatory"...huh?
The way they reported it, or just that it was reported at all?
Are people really that hyper-sensitive?
Considering that they reported on every excruiating step of Schapelle Corby's trial, I hardly think they're going to ignore any of this.
"This has turned into a religious storm," he said by phone from Sydney.
"It's caused a lot of offence and kicked up a big fuss.
"I've been on the phone to the Islamic Council in Sydney this morning, they don't see any problem with the fact that she is a Muslim, but if we have offended anyone in the Australian Islamic community we apologise for that."
Anyway, the latest news is that the outfit wasn't solely for religious reasons at all, but to keep away the bitches in her cell:
She shared a cell and the other women constantly ribbed her about her good looks, because they were jealous, Mr Malcahy said.
"They gawk and the guards gawk and want to touch her," he said.
Bitches! The lot of 'em
More at CurrencyLad, who makes the following observation:
I think Australia's Islamic community should apologise to Michelle for something else buried at the bottom of this report: "They [fellow women prisoners] gawked and the guards gawked and wanted to touch her."
That burqa - it does wonders for instilling respect for women in the minds of Indonesian men doesn't it?
Wear it or be abused - that's the message.