Religious criticism overshadows talented teen’s scholarship win

KUALA LUMPUR — Hajar Nur Asyiqin Abdul Zubir, an 18-year-old who dreams of studying at Oxford University, is the winner of a prestigious Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) scholarship, but to some on Facebook, the young Malay girl’s achievement has been shadowed by her failure to don the tudung (Muslim headscarf).

On the social media site, the chemistry student, upon winning the Kijang Emas Scholarship 2015 that allows her to pursue any field of study at top universities across the world, was told that her father would bear the sins of her not covering her “aurat” (or parts of the body that should not be publicly exposed).

“Congratulations ... but it’s a pity the ‘aurat’ is not covered. Her father bears the sin,” a Facebook user called Rozaidi Jai commented on a Friends of BN’s (ruling coalition Barisan Nasional) Facebook post on Wednesday announcing Ms Hajar’s win.

Facebook user Nazri Toushirou even called for conditions of the scholarship interview to mandate covering the “aurat”. “Don’t think it’s wrong, right?” he said. Fellow Facebook user Mohd Sabri Hussien said: “Pretty looks, good at studies. It’ll be better if she wore a tudung”.

Another Facebook user, called Mohd Khairudzaman Bahaudin, said: “All right, congratulations, Allah hates His servants who do not cover their ‘aurat’, we succeed not because we are clever”.

Other Facebook users, however, have since come to the 18-year-old’s defence, with one named Ag Sha saying: “It doesn’t necessarily mean that not wearing a tudung means you’re not religious. Congratulations ... prove to them that you’re not shallow in your religious knowledge”.

Practice of Islam in Malaysia has begun to show signs of fundamentalism, as illustrated among others by the boom in the tudung industry that was a rarity just several decades ago.

Friday sermons sanctioned by the government also repeatedly tell women to cover their aurat, with a Malay-Muslim gymnast recently getting backlash for wearing a leotard during the South East Asian Games competition in June.

Ms Hajar had secured the scholarship offer following a rigorous assessment process by Bank Negara. She scored nine A+s in the national examinations taken by fifth-year secondary students last year.

According to Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s speech at the Kijang Emas Scholarship award ceremony in April, the central bank had received 212 applications for the 2015 Kijang Emas Scholarship and shortlisted the top 24 based on their national examinations results and involvement in sports and co-curricular activities. MALAY MAIL ONLINE