Muslims in Fatehpura burned an effigy of Sania Mirza on Tuesday. Miss Mirza’s transgression? Her publicly stated views on S-E-X. (Thanks, Raj!)
Muslim leaders said that their religion and holy book ‘Quran’ do not permit her to make such statment.[linky]
The article linked above provided no clue to the naughty view that burned poor Sania. Some googling turned up this:
She was quoted as saying that whether before or after marriage, the most important matter was that sex was safe. [linku]
Whoa, nellie. I knew SM (great initials on her, by the way) had plenty of balls, I just thought they were for tennis. Of course, there’s more to the story; Miss Thing had to recant.
In a statement issued in Hyderabad, Mirza said pre-marital sex could not be justified.
She said she was upset that her image had been maligned by misquotes and that such a non-issue had become a controversy.
We already know about the creepy effigy destruction. Check out how the tennis star’s detractors voiced their displeasure:
Some activists burned Mirza’s effigy and shouted “Sania Mirza down down”.
I’m not touching that last one. 😉I’ve said it before, I’ll type it again– India doesn’t have enough successful athletes. Do we have to harass one of the few who does exist? Sania is so fortunate, she offends more and more people, every day. Tipster Raj had this to say:
Desis are like crabs… they just cannot bear to see another desi succeed. This young lady is a talented tennis player..maybe not so savvy how to handle her fame but can you blame her..she is only 18 years old…The moral of the story is people need to mind their own business, stop hero worship, and be happy for someone who has achieved something in life.
Amen. Let the girl win and represent. Stop hatin’.
:+:
Inappropriate and Consummately Absurd Aside:
Raj, the reader who sent in this tip closed his email with the following, which I found hilarious, because I am actually thirteen:
If Sania wants to really focus on her tennis, it may be better to go live in Europe, USA or some where where she can feel free to fart without the press sniffing around her.
My tips come to me via GMail. Do you know where I’m going with this? Of course you do. Our readers are BRILLIANT.
I had to capture this for posterity:
Seriously Raj…thanks for unintentionally providing so much amusement with one little tip. 😉
Sania is the best thing to happen to indian muslem females.
mullahs are afraid she will instigate a freedom movement among muslem females; sania is a threat to their unchallenged power.
i hope sania shows more and more of her sexy legs and hot body.
i agree with some guy who said sania could do what crusaders or us army troops couldnt !!!
It’s obvious that both the clerics involved and the protestors are just trying to make an “example” out of her. There are plenty of other, much more scantily-clad, Muslim models and actresses that regularly appear both in Indian music videos and in films, and I don’t see any “edicts” or effigy-burning against them.
Hell, even Madhubala was wearing far less than a burqa in some of the courtesan-songs in the recently re-released and re-colourised version of Mughal-e-Azam. Not a word from the clerics, ironically.
Also, you see Muslim actors like Fardeen Khan and Emran Hashmi regularly engaging in most unIslamic behaviour in some of their more recent films — there’s been some pretty full-on kissing involved, for example — yet there is no effigy-burning or “threats to throw them out of Islam”. Plus of course certain other male Muslim actors frequently appearing shirtless in their films (a certain Khan has become particularly notorious for this).
Hypocrisy and double-standards. As I said at the start, the people involved are just trying to make Sania into some kind of sacrificial goat.
Hell, even Madhubala was wearing far less than a burqa in some of the courtesan-songs in the recently re-released and re-colourised version of Mughal-e-Azam. Not a word from the clerics, ironically.
Yea, but I bet she did not make pronouncements of being a good Muslim and praying 5 times a day and eating the Quran for lunch like Sania Mirza did. Sania Mirza by making public her religious piety has now given an opening to people who want to judge her piety.
Desis are like crabsÂ… they just cannot bear to see another desi succeed
i have heard this sentiment before- does anyone have any empirical evidence on crabs being assholes?
btw,i’m a crustasian, you insensitive clod!!!
What next, brooms and chappals?
Indians love burning things, whether it be the deceased, wives of the deceased, or my persoanl favorite, the picture of a famous person. I would love to go to one of these rallies.
RAVI: Okay people lets start 3 lines, one for the picture one for the gasoline and one for the matches. We want to make this a real classy event so please dont cut into the line.
Sanjay: I know you people are looking to shout out a really cool slogan that rhymes and at the same time has a powerfull message, but I couldnt think of one so we are going to go with the one my 3 year old nephew came up with “Sania Mirza down down”.
Ambar, they’re way ahead of you. I wrote about this whole saga on Pickled Politics about a week back, linking it back to the Khushboo affair you mention.
The same loonie who said Sania’s skirt was a SIN, Moulana Haseebul Hasan Siddiqui, general secretary of the Sunni Ulema Board said
But it weren’t just the Muslims who were angry…Members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad took the street yesterday in protest of Sania’s OUTRAGEOUS comments, burning posters of her, beating pictures of her with sandals and chanting the phrase Anna highlights…
NDTV more recently had an interesting story about how the protests were engineered. People were whipped into a frenzy before having posters, sandals and matches handed to them.
Anna. For Christmas this year I am going to buy you the gift for the woman who has everything. A Fart Spray. A SUPER Fart Spray.
I was just gonna say! You guys arrived to this story so late despite being (apparently) such avowed Sania Mirza fans. Tsk tsk.
to give this more context, the story actually begins with Khushboo, as BB pointed out above, who said that girls should use protection for sex whether before or after marriage. That kicked up a whole storm, made worse when Sania also waded into the controversy with her (sensible) views. Indians eh? Blaaaady nutters.
Is Khushboo a Muslim as well ?
That is my biggest beef with Gmail. That THEY READ our EMAILS to sell us CRAP. Now I am not sure that yahoo email is not scanning our emails, but GMAIL does it in your face. So down with google for this aspect .. google down down 🙂
Yes she is. She is also from Mumbai, and the silly Tamil parties werre going on about ‘deporting’ her. Lmao!
Sania Mirza being hounded by Mullahs made her declare her ‘piety’ and now they hound her more. In the meantime, like lots of clerics from all religions, they remain in the luxury of pompous self righteous hypocrisy.
Leave the poor girl alone you horrible people.
ANNA
You should have put the fart machine ads up in an entirely separate post – and linked to it with a desi farting story – something along the lines of how when a grandparent or elderly aunty from desh would come to England or America to visit, and not being attuned to our etiquette, would let rip very loud in a totally unselfconscious way, causing much helpless hilarity and amusement to your 11 year old self and your even younger brothers and sisters.
This is immortalised in Meera Syal’s novel Anita and Me, in which her visiting grandmother performs this particular function.
hate to be the one to break up the party of “muslim leaders bad, sania mirza good. down with the religious fanatics”. you have to see where these people are coming from. the problem was that people assumed that she said that sex before marriage is perfectly acceptable. considering the demi-god(dess) status she enjoys in the country, what she says can influence a lot of kids and these folks felt they needed to jump into the issue. Why? Don’t want the country going down the route of all the “sinners” in the west. You and I might think that when, where and how we have sex is our business and ideally that’s the way it should be for Sania too but unfortunately it’s not, because of the position she’s in.
With fame come certain responsibilities. She enjoys a lot of perks living in a country like India which is starved for world class atheletes. She likes staying in the spotlight, she hams it up in front of the press, she likes (good) publicity. This is just the downside to it. She has to watch what she says. On the other hand if she beieves in something strongly enough, she can get herself heard.
anyway, after all that rambling, i do think the whole thing is messed up (wasn’t sure whether SM allows “fucked up”…oh wait, i just used it) and she should be allowed to concentrate on her game and do and say whatever the hell she wants. She’s just 18. Support her and be proud of her.
MJ, no she didn’t. Her quote, as above, was that sex must always be safe, no matter where it happens. She also categorically denied advocating sex before marriage.
It’s surely a more mature attitude to accept that some people ARE having sex outside wedlock and hence recommend that sex should always be safe. At a time when AIDS is rife in India, I’m far more concerned with this message getting spread by high profile people than any other (pertaining to sex).
Interesting point AMfD. Pablo is also right – she only proclaimed her piety in reaction to angry mullahs hounding her. Her mistake was perhaps that – she should’ve just ignored them. Easier said than done, I know.
I saw Negar Khan in Rudraksh yesterday. It makes you wonder what the hell all this fuss over Sania is about. Good grief, I was scandalised. But she also gave me the horn. A scandalous horn. Apparently she’s been deported from India, or something?
‘when, where and how we have sex is our business
It’s a great idea. The problem is the left in america wants the taxpayer to bear the cost of raising the children of people who behave that way.
Bong Breaker, I know she didn’t. That’s why I said people assumed she said that.
Negar Khan is not Indian and yes she has been deported out of the country.
Apologies MJ, I got the wrong end of the tennis racquet. But I still don’t agree that we have to “see where these people are coming from”. If they’re dumb enough to assume the wrong thing, then why should the Sania Good, Mullahs Bad party be broken up?
Sure, dude. Meanwhile, the right is against birth control and abortion and therefore pro-crime.
Whohoo! SepiaMutiny gets mentioned in the Financial Express.
The most amusing part regarding the muslims I know (they are in my extended family; mine is atheist, thank god) is how one side is always trying to one-up the other in their “muslim-ness”. My mother and I always get a kick out of this. It’s too bad that these mullahs hold such power.
Do they really not have anything better to do than burn an idol of an 18 year old girl?
And technically, making and burning that effigy is against the Quran too.
Sheesh, leave the girl alone! At least Sonia Mirza is a breakthrough Muslim female who’s a challenge to the world’s preconceived notions of us! It’s people like her who will make the religion more acceptable in today’s society!
These ‘leaders’ are pitiful. The worst part is that a lot of people, even though they may not agree with them make excuses for their actions. People need to stop coddling these moron mullahs and start treating them for what they are – idiots who crave power and will insult (or worse) their own people to get it.
Whew. Sania’s boobs might change the Muslim world. I bet George Bush paid her to get implants.
I totally agree with Tipster Raj comment
“Desis are like crabsÂ… they just cannot bear to see another desi succeed. This young lady is a talented tennis player..maybe not so savvy how to handle her fame but can you blame her..she is only 18 years oldÂ…The moral of the story is people need to mind their own business, stop hero worship, and be happy for someone who has achieved something in life.”
The day we our country men and women in India and all across the world stop thinking and acting this way our India will not move forward.
mADAM, sURE YOU WILL DO WHAT DO YOU THINK .REALLY INDIA WILL BE PROUD OF YOU WHEN YOU ARE IN THE FIRST POSITION IN THE WORLD.GOD BLESS YOU. 9444151287