Much ado about sarong

I was flipping through the newspapers and browsing the online news portals this past week and I noticed one word was featured in many headlines - sarong.

If you haven’t heard, there was a bit of a fuss recently when a woman in Petaling Jaya was denied service at a JPJ office, because apparently, it was deemed that she was dressed indecently.

She was given a sarong to wear over her skirt and her photo posting of the whole affair later went viral on social media.


Now yes, I personally believe no one should be discriminated against based on their attire.

But, in this particular case, was this woman actually a victim of discrimination?

What caught my attention about this whole sad episode is how fast it went from a run-of-the-mill violation of government office dress code, into a women's rights issue!

What constitutes indecent attire is subjective, and expanding on this subject would be a whole other article.

Perhaps it is worthwhile to question whether the dress code at government offices today is up to date with current times.

This is after all a modern, multi-racial, multi-religious country we live in.


And while I am against forcing someone to wear a sarong or towel just to run an errand at a government office, rules are rules.

So don't kick up a fuss if you’re denied service because you failed to follow them.