I hope you take magistrate to task

YES, ma’am, maybe you should have slapped that sexist, arrogant magistrate. In response to the Mary Govender courtroom fashion saga “Courting disaster… would you wear this before the judge? (Sunday Tribune, May 29) I would like to congratulate Govender for boldly standing up to the arrogant, sexist, insensitive magistrate, Ismail Malik, who being in a position of authority, thinks it’s his right to judge, criticise and make derogatory comments on a beautiful, confident and sexy woman’s sense of dress and style.

Who does Malik think he is? We are not living in a Third World Islamic State country.

Does Malik even fathom we live in a modern Western country? It is ironic he is a magistrate. Does he know our constitution and legal system are among the world’s best?

We, as a free nation, dress how we want to, eat as we want to and, yes,openly criticise as we want to.

No one, not even a judge, has the right to dictate how a modern, sexy, glamorous woman like Govender should dress.

What I would like to know, as I am sure most modern thinking men and women in South Africa would, is the reasoning behind Malik’s ideology. Is he trying to impose Sharia law in a South African courtroom by telling a woman what to wear?

Does he want a beautiful, confident, sexy, glamorous, modern woman like Govender to swop her Calvin Klein outfits for the burka or hijab as in Islamic countries where women wear these suppressive styles.

Maybe our fashion-conscious judge should go and find himself a courtroom somewhere in Iraq or Syria, where he can order subservient women to dress to his liking, in court and otherwise.

It would also serve our presiding magistrate well to look deep into the mirror of his soul and ask himself: is this fashion fiasco really about upholding courtroom decorum as he originally stated or more of a hidden agenda and a deep desire to control women?

To the lady of the court, Govender, you are now a hero to millions of women out there (and some men) for your bold stance.

And, yes, I do love the way you say if Malik was any other man, instead of a magistrate, you would have slapped his smug, selfrighteous face.

Maybe you should have slapped him, ma’am. I know I probably would have if I was a lady and in your position and to hell with the consequences. Either way, your bold stand was a morally bigger slap in the face.

I do hope you and the Commission for Gender Equality take Malik to task so that he and others of the so-called esteemed elite, who think like him and deem they are untouchable, realise that arrogant, sexist, derogatory, demeaning personal views of women should be kept personal and not displayed in open court. RAJEIN RAMKREPAL

Chatsworth