After reading Praba Ganesan's letter , I felt that there is a need to further comment on this issue. I rather disagree with what Praba says about the PAS government's plan to have a roadshow to educate Muslim women on how to dress as a 'waste' of taxpayers money.

From my point of view it is not a waste of money for such an activity. I think the PAS government is doing a good thing here. They are showing their religious commitment to their people by enlightening them on such issues.

I am not a Muslim but I have studied Islamic history and its teachings while in high school. From a shallow understanding of Islam compared to many of our nation's Islamic scholars, I too somewhat feel that many Muslim women are not well informed on the ethical dressing according to Islam.

Many women put on the scarf as they feel it is an obligation or their family forces them to do so. I have seen many Malay women wear a scarf and also tight blouse with tight jeans. I am not saying that this is wrong, but it is somewhat misinformed (intentionally or not?) way of dressing.

From what I know, in Islam, the main code on dressing is to close the 'aurat' as per the teaching of the Quran. What is the point of wearing a scarf and at the same time putting on a tight blouse with a visible cleavage and tight jeans to fully show the body contour?

I am not saying that women should not wear tight jeans and blouse (it is totally up to them on how to dress) but pointing out that if you want to be religious then go all the way. Why show to others that you are being a hypocrite? Why wear a scarf if you feel that you want to be proud of your body and show it off? If you look at the many women in KL, you might get a feel of what I am saying, specially now during Ramadan .

What the PAS government is doing is basically what the people that voted for them expect them to do - which is uphold the teaching of Islam. It is these peoples' tax money that is being used. So, it is not really a waste. Waste of money is what the many mega-projects that were undertaken by the BN government to 'enrich' their cronies !

As for Women and Family Development Minister Shahrizat Abu Jalil's main concern - that the money (a measly RM60,000 compared to RM25 million on our own so-called 1 million on our South Pole expedition) is wasted on this activity - then all I can say is that I feel sorry for her.

As a Muslim, she must have really been misinformed. If Sharizat is happy to echo our outgoing prime minister's statement that we are an Islamic state (which is not quite right), then it should have been ministers like her who are the so-called champions of the rights of Islamic women to have organise such road shows.

If you want to claim that we are an Islamic state, then why not behave like leaders of the Islamic state? Is it a worry that you might not be very popular in the next elections if you do so?