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Free Malaysia Today reports
At the [Malaysian] National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017, which took place in Putrajaya recently, the girl was informed that what she wore was "improper and had violated the dress code" for the tournament.
[...] The girl's chess coach, Kaushal Khandhar, wrote on Facebook, "In the middle of Round 2, (without stopping the clocks) Chief Arbiter informs my student that the dress she wore was improper and violated the dress code of the tournament.
"It was later informed (by Chief Arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the Tournament Director deemed my student's dress to be 'seductive' and a 'temptation from a certain angle far, far away'."
[...] Kaushal said after discussions with the chief arbiter, the girl was allowed to compete, provided she bought a pair of slacks for the next day, but that decision came at 10pm and with the event at Putrajaya, there was no way the girl's mother could buy anything for the 9am start the next day.
"Before the morning round next day, my student's mother called the tournament director regarding this matter. Initially he had replied that he was not aware of the situation but after a brief discussion, we realised he knew all the details on this incident prior to this phone call.
"He promised to return the call upon discussion with the chief arbiter, but this did not happen. He would further not answer or return any calls by my student's mother", Kaushal wrote, adding that the situation led to the inevitable decision of withdrawal from the tournament altogether."
We should perhaps note here that Malaysia is majority-Muslim.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday May 01 2017, @05:00PM (2 children)
Don't try to excuse a primitive culture, by claiming things that aren't true.
I crossposted so didn't see your post before what I said below, but it certainly was common in the mid-20th century in American and European schools for girls' skirts to extend at least to the knee. (The typical test was to have girls kneel on the ground see whether the hem touched the floor.) The pictured skirt for the girl in question likely would not pass that test.
Yes, standards have changed since then, and I personally have no objection to the girl's dress, but trying to pretend that such policies weren't common in "Western" nations a couple generations ago is just not being honest.
Read through that: it's an article by muslims for muslims, not some propaganda piece. Note how extremely restrictive it is.
Yes, I don't see anyone here defending burkas or whatever. Nobody apparently told this girl she needed to wear one or conform to that restrictive code. We're talking about a girl wearing a dress that could actually have been controversial in Christian countries a few generations ago. And despite your one citation of "top of the knee" policy for a Christian school, I'd bet a lot of money you can still find instances of some schools that adhere to the "hem touches the ground when kneeling" policy.
Oh.. an quick internet search, and I don't even have to bet. See dress codes here, here [holyspiritrcs.org], here [stphilipnerischool.com], here [publishpath.com], etc., etc. Those were just the first few hits of the search. And this site [bellatory.com] describing public school dress codes in the U.S. of the 1960s and 1970s states:
The length of skirts was not much of a problem in elementary school, but after grade 6, skirts were checked regularly by school administrators. Skirts were required to touch the floor when girls kneeled on both knees at once and this was required of several girls every day in the hallways at class changes. Girls with skirts longer than that length also were required to kneel.
The photo of the dress looks like it's cut just at the top of the knee, so it likely would have failed standard tests back then.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday May 01 2017, @05:15PM (1 child)
Oh, and just to show my links aren't cherrypicked, please have a look at many of the links that show up in a search [google.com]. Personally, I'm quite shocked at how common this standard apparently still is at many conservative schools.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday May 03 2017, @11:41PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves