A few days ago, it was the attire of Sania Mirza, an Indian tennis player, playing in the US Open, that drew more attention in certain quarters in India. A Muslim cleric from her hometown, Hyderabad, commentedthat her dress “leaves nothing to imagination” and will “undoubtedly be a corrupting influence on young women”. Another fanatic group in Kolkata (India) threatened to sisrupt her matches.

They succeeded to some extent. Sania Mirza chose not to walk the romp at a fashion pageant featuring other participants in the tournament. Over centuries, a person’s attire has also been a symbol of his/her identity. Particularly in communities such as Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jews. India’s former foreign secretary Salman Haider puts it, “Through the centuries, in most religions, the conservatives and the liberals have not seen eye to eye over the dress code.”

Imtiaz Ahmed, a social scientist from India described such ‘fatwahs’ as a sign of clerical authoritarianism’. Not surprisingly, the creamy layer of the Indian Muslim society blamed the media for ‘making a issue out of a non-issue. It included film actress turned social activist Shabana Azmi and Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi Prof. Mushirul Hasan. They seemed to be not in mood to annoy their community which continue to remain segregated.