FEBRUARY 19 ― The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) recently shared on Facebook a video by an NGO about how women should cover their aurat and safeguard their female “honour”, by comparing "uncovered" women to a lollipop surrounded by flies.

The video by Sukarelawan Sosial Islam tries to make covering one’s aurat hip. It features two young women in tudung discussing what one of them should wear to Pavilion to see her favourite Korean artiste.

The woman who’s wondering what to wear considers choices like a T-shirt, a sleeveless top and a loose spaghetti-strap blouse.

Her friend admonishes her gently and tells her to dress “properly” to safeguard her aurat and her “honour” as a woman. She points out that an uncovered lollipop, for example, will attract flies and make the sweet inedible. Then she warns her friend ominously that failing to dress modestly will attract the wrong attention. “Nanti susah."

It’s unclear what the woman means by the consequences of not dressing modestly. It’s a myth that how a woman dresses causes rape. Women in loose clothing and a headscarf have been raped, not to mention underage children and babies.

If the video is claiming that immodest dressing will lead to premarital sex, that’s clearly illogical. A woman’s decision to have sex or not has nothing to do with what she’s wearing.

Other offensive and illogical illustrations of sexually active women are also used to place a value on female virginity. I’ve read about some American schoolteachers who compare women to a rose. If the rose is plucked several times, its beauty is diminished and nobody wants it anymore.

Then there’s the comparison of women to locks. A good lock is one that can be opened only by one key; a good key on the other hand can open many locks.

All these illustrations of women ― a lollipop, rose, lock ― are illogical if taken to their full conclusion. These examples mean that women should never ever have intercourse, even in marriage, because sex is portrayed as an act that degrades them.

If an uncovered lollipop attracts flies, even just one fly consuming it is enough to turn people off then. Marriage doesn’t turn that insect into a prince; marriage just means that that single fly is permanently stuck to the lollipop.

The same goes for a rose. Plucking even just one petal makes the flower less beautiful compared to a full-bloomed rose.

As with the example of the lock, I would argue that the best lock in the world is one that can’t be opened by any key.

Hence, if we go by the illustrations of such moralists, women can never have sex. The human race will perish and men can only have sex with men. But these religious folk also frown on homosexuality. Oh dear, what a pickle.

Not only are such comparisons of sexually active women to objects insulting, society’s unhealthy obsession with female virginity can take a real toll on women’s psychological health.

A woman wrote about how she took a Christian virginity pledge at the age of 10 and managed to abstain from sex right until she got married. She said her virginity had become her “badge of honour”, but when she finally had sex for the first time, with her husband, she felt “soiled and tarnished” as everyone knew that her virginity was now gone. Sex felt “dirty and wrong and sinful." She had to go for therapy.

If religious moralists really want to prevent premarital sex, their campaigns should be targeted at men, since they are usually the ones who proposition women and initiate sex.

Wouldn’t it be more effective to tell men to avoid asking women for sex? Religious authorities can even reward women who report men who proposition them. Maybe give the women a lollipop and lock the men up with other lascivious men.

Instead of having #tutupaurat campaigns, moralists should educate boys and men to treat girls and women with respect, regardless of how they’re dressed.

Boys should be taught from young not to look at females as sex objects, nor to take advantage of drunk girls, nor even to rape women. Rapists don't come out of nowhere. These men were once boys raised by parents.

A great society is not one where women cover up while incest, rape and child marriage continue to happen because men fail to respect women; it’s one where people have a healthy attitude towards sex and women are treated as full human beings, equal to men.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.