Puteri Transformasi

Today someone told me that she went to a wedding where the bride didn’t wear a tudung. Normally, this wouldn’t have raised my eyebrows, except for the fact that I was under the assumption the bride in question was a regular tudung wearer. Then, I was told, she’s a transformer.

For the uninitiated, the term is one that is growing in vernacular popularity as reference to someone who sometimes wears the tudung and sometimes doesn’t – depending on the social occasion. It has nothing to do with those Japanese toys that change from robot to drone to fighting machine and who knows what else.

Now, this fascinates me.

As a non-tudung wearer, I assumed the donning of the headscarf to cover one’s hair or “aurat” was an issue of faith. Sure, one can lose faith, in which case a tudung wearer would become what I have learned is otherwise known as “free hair.” They obviously haven’t seen my bills from the hairdresser.

But to waver between being faithful and being faithless?

Apparently, this phenomenon of shedding the tudung for special social occasions, i.e. your wedding is acceptable practice, even in the most religious of circles. This confuses me even more. If getting married is entrenched as part of being a good Muslim, how can an act of apparent sin be deemed acceptable? After all, shouldn’t the sanctity of marriage be blessed under the most faithful of circumstances?

Now, I don’t pretend to be a good Muslim. In fact, I don’t pretend to be a good anything. But I should think people who have chosen to wear their hearts on their sleeves so to speak, or in this case on their heads would be less frivolous in their show of support for the cause.

Maybe the old PM was right. Maybe the Malays among us do forget too easily. In fact, too often, at that.

But then again, fence sitting does have its advantages. Ask any politician and he will attest to the fact that success is determined by sheer timing. If your shoe happens to drop on the correct side at the right time, you will make it to the top. Doesn’t matter that you weren’t in the trenches all this while.

Maybe I should start a new political party since the elections are around the corner – or so they say. Parti Transformasi. And the Puteris can range from bikini-clad bunga mangga bearers to kebaya-wearing hamper wrappers. Better yet, how about tudung-clad bikini-wearing calendar girls?

Ish, dahsyat betul budak ni! I think I had better stick to my adventures with the hairdresser. They say earth tones are the feng shui colours this year…. Time to visit the salon!