Sania Mirza er et tennistalent av de sjeldne. I India råder det som kalles «Sania-Mania». Men ikke alle er fornøyd. Sania er muslim, og nå har en skriftlærd utstedt en fatwa mot henne for uanstendig påkledning.

TO THE youth of India, she symbolises the optimism of their rapidly changing nation. But to one of its leading Muslim groups she represents a malign influence on young minds and it has issued a fatwa against her.
Sania Mirza, the 18-year-old Indian tennis star, is the most successful female player in the country’s history. The Indian media has proclaimed «Sania mania», and her game has ignited a huge interest in tennis among a nation of cricket lovers.

Her image is on billboards and her endorsement fee matches that of the cricketer Rahul Dravid, and is second only to the batsman Sachin Tendulkar. She rarely ventures outside her family home in Hyderabad without a bodyguard.
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As a practising Muslim, the teenager’s confident attitude, sassy T-shirts and fondness for ear piercings have been as scrutinised as her games.

This week, however, her status as India’s newest sporting icon raised the hackles of an Islamic group, and a leading cleric issued a fatwa against the player, citing her tennis skirt and T-shirt as «indecent».

«It leaves nothing to the imagination,» Hasheeb-ul-Hasan Siddiqui, of the Sunni Ulema Board, said. The board added that the clothes she wore in advertisements were «no better».

He was also critical of her status as a role model, saying that «for an entire generation of young Muslim girls . . . she will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence».

The cleric suggested that the female badminton team from Iran, who played in the Asian Badminton Championship in Hyderabad this week wearing cloaks and headscarves, were better role models for Indian Muslim women.

Fatwa lobbed at tennis star over indecent dress
From Raekha Prasad in Delhi

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1773006,00.html