The Federal Territories Islamic Department (JAWI) conducted a raid last night on a dinner event meant to resemble a “beauty pageant” featuring trans women, citing a fatwa that prohibits Muslim women from taking part in beauty contests … but JAWI doesn’t recognise trans women as women, creating a bit of a legal Catch-22.
The raid, which was carried out at around 10pm last night at a hotel in KL, saw about 10 JAWI officers preventing the 200-odd transgender guests from leaving the premises. Lawyer and activist Siti Kasim and the event’s organiser were apprehended and brought to the Dang Wangi police station for questioning.
Speaking to Malay Mail Online‘s Boo Su-Lyn, Siti said the event was shut down by religious officers on the premise that beauty pageants with female Muslim participants was haram, or prohibited, under a gazetted Islamic fatwa, or religious edict issued in 1996.
“The officer told me that it’s against the law to have a beauty contest — it’s ‘haram’ in Malaysia, based on a fatwa,” she said.
However, Siti maintained that the event was themed to have the appearance of a beauty contest, but was in fact only a performance held for the dinner.
She also said that JAWI officers denied she was being placed under arrest at the Dang Wangi police station, but was told that the event contravened the 1996 edict gazetted under the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act in February 1996, which declared as haram the participation of Muslim women in beauty contests.
That brought up a major sticking point for the lawyer, who questioned how trans women participating in a (mock) beauty pageant could be in violation of the fatwa, as Malaysian religious authorities do not currently acknowledge trans women as being, well, women.
“If they say these people are not women, then why are they coming in?” Siti asked.
Reader Interactions