What happened at the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017 is appalling and shocking. It is a disgrace that a dress had become such a controversial issue unnecessarily.

A 12-year-old girl’s attire was deemed inappropriate by the tournament director and was forced to withdraw from the tournament. By all accounts, her dress was within the acceptable rules of attire and did not violate her modesty.

Her dress was knee-length and she had tights on - so nothing was revealed! Then what was the problem?

According to the tournament director, the dress was “seductive” and “a temptation from a certain angle far, far away”.

The mother of the girl had explained that she had brought three dresses of similar length for the three-day competition. And when she was told that the dress was unsuitable at around 10pm there was no way she could have bought long slacks at that time of the night for the next day’s event at 9am.

They had no choice except to reluctantly and sadly withdraw from the competition in Putrajaya.

This 12-year-old girl was the current Kuala Lumpur district champion. Her coach described her as “a bright young girl” who had shown tremendous potential in the game. But she was not allowed to develop her potential and prove herself as someone with a bright future in the game.

We never had this kind of problem in the good old days when there was decency and decorum in our men. But what has gone wrong in spite of so much religious education and preaching over tv, radio and in mosques?

What has happened to our piety?

Realistically speaking, the problem is the men’s. It is NOT the women’s problem. A man must be in control of his urges and be responsible for his action and behavior. He cannot give in to his animal instincts and conveniently blame the woman for his immoral conduct. He must be held accountable for his irrational behavior.

Society cannot and should not pin the blame on the innocent women.

P RAMAKRISHNAN is an Aliran member.