I refer to the Malaysiakini report On Protest against anti-tomboy fatwa .

May I congratulate the National Fatwa Council on the banning of tomboy-ism and lesbianism. So impotent (for want of a better word!) they are at tackling the bigger issues of environmental degradation, the suffering of farmed animals, SMS divorces, the abuses of Ketuanan Melayu and detentions without trial that they must be seen to be doing something. Every little bit helps, I suppose.

It may have escaped the council’s deliberations that being a tomboy is not synonymous to being a lesbian. Yet it didn’t stop them from extrapolating that dressing and behaving like a man will lead a woman into same-sex sexual intercourse. Little do they know that half of females engaging in homosexual relationships are indeed very feminine.

Think of the high-profile lesbians such as Jodie Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Saffron Burrows and Portia de Rossi. (The same goes with male homosexuality.)

What plunged to the depth of ignorance is that having short hair or shaving off one’s head a la Sharifah Amani or dressing in the clothes that men wear (shirts and trousers?) or admiring male behaviour is akin to denying one’s femininity and therefore wrong according to this council’s Islam.

How do they explain the bravery of Tun Fatimah who led the men of Melaka against the Portuguese invaders - surely she couldn’t have done so simpering in her baju kurung ? What of women learning the ancient art of pencak silat with legs apart in trousers and grunting as they deliver powerful punches and high kicks? Are these women behaving against the edict?

What about women of Islam such as Khadijah al-Kubra (r.a.) and Aisha as-Siqqidah (r.a)? For the former to be a successful merchant where female newborns were put death and for the latter to raise an army of men, well, they must have ventured into the world of men in thoughts and deeds. Yet, no scholar of Islam ever denies their femininity.

I fear that some learned men of God can only see pious femininity in a girlish and submissive female, one that can be moulded into a perfect (and warped) male fantasy. Anything else is a threat to this otherwise fantastic comfort zone.

This narrow interpretation ignores the fact that femininity is not a homogenous entity. A pretty woman in a long skirt and high heels may be your orthopaedic surgeon, whose raison d ’etre is playing with power tools; a butch lady door manager may be a fierce mother, the sole breadwinner for her family; a demure receptionist in a headscarf may be one who takes pleasure in her single care-free life, with no intention of doing the religious thing of marrying and procreating. Femininity is what a female chooses to make of it.

While this edict will no doubt fall on many deaf ears, many more will allow it to govern their conscience. The most susceptible are those at the cusp of womanhood ie,. those seeking to find themselves in an increasingly complex and globalised world. If a woman dare not experiment with alternative haircut and attire, will she dare explore her personality?

If she is afraid that her raised voice towards her male colleagues will diminish her femininity, will she ever learn to be assertive in the wider world? If she is anxious about her physicality, will she have the energy to fight the attrition to her independent soul?

This recent fatwa is pernicious in that it leaves some section of the Muslim population fearful lest their actions offend the belief they hold dear.Gumption and imagination are qualities essential to prosper in this brave new world - not forever forfeiting one’s heart and mind to the exigencies of fellow men however exalted their positions are.

It is somewhat surprising that concerns on this matter are voiced by the likes of Ivy Josiah and many non-Muslims who have chosen to stand up for their Muslim sisters. The deafening silence of Muslim groups can only mean two things - either they have been cowered by their reverence towards the fatwa council, or the edicts themselves have ceased to have any relevance to their daily lives.

For the sake of my Muslim sisters, I hope it is the latter.