A friend from the United States sent me a report from a Singapore newspaper on Michelle Leslie's first shopping day in Singapore, inviting comment. Ms Leslie survived jail in Bali when she was acquitted of drug charges.

The report read that "it was unclear whether she presented herself as a Muslim as part of her legal strategy, her Australian lawyer Ross Hill has said that they had played the cards they were dealt". She had a "sudden makeover" in Singapore where she traded for her headscarf for "skinny jeans, midriff-baring tank top and designer shades".

I am reminded of the example of the wearing of the fez for males in the Ottoman empire over the hat (the brim of which impedes prostration during prayer). The fez introduced by Mahmud II overtook the hat which overtook the turban in a dress revolution (1826-1829) which was a part of modernization. The way the fez was worn, whether sideways, over the forehead or on the back of the head, could indicate wealth or morals. Local Christians and Jews and foreigners working in the region wore the fez when they wanted to show respect for, deflect the hostility of, the Muslims.

Ms Leslie, like the fez wearers of old, merely did what she perceived was best in the circumstances.