Islam prohibits the wearing of discreet make-up by Muslim women in public. It is taboo and has been scorned upon by the Muslim society.
Muslim women who work in a professional area, such as teachers look terrible without a little blusher. If the use of "Henna" is considered Sunnah, surely a little blusher applied with the intention of making the wearer look healthy and alert, rather than sick and tired, cannot be evil, only luster.
Wearing such discreet make-up, as long as it is within the limits maybe allowed. In a Hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, the Prophet (PBUH) said that the best perfume for men is that which has scent but no colour, and the best perfume for women is that which has colour but no scent (Tirimidih).
The make-up should not be worn to change the creation of Allah, but if it is applied to make the wearer appear healthy, active and able to work, it may be allowed.
If a touch of "Henna" could make the women appear "healthier" one could use modern black eye-liner which is easier to apply. It is acceptable for a Muslim woman's cosmetics to be apparent as long as there is no scent.
At the same time they should not be used to make the wearer appear very attractive, rather just enough should be used to give her a healthy appearance.
Either powder or the modern pencils maybe used and grey is acceptable but the coloured eyeliners should not be used.
It goes without saying that women participate in beauty contests in quest of fame while on the contrary a few strive to fulfil the same desire by publicly opposing the staging of beauty contests.
A warped mind would always claim that the person who contributes lavishly towards the establishment of an orphanage is a paedophile although there isn't an iota of evidence to substantiate this claim. Similarly, tainted minds would imagine that beauty contests are organised with evil intentions whilst aware of the fact that the "Miss World" contest under the motto "Beauty With a Purpose" has raised over US $200 million worldwide to assist under-privileged children.
The over-exposure of the female body in public during beauty contests is an affront to the dignity of women and a cultural invasion of foreign values were the reasons given by the dissident group to justify their campaign against the staging of the "Miss World" contest in Bangalore. However, in the same breath they declared proudly that two protestors have already set themselves ablaze to espouse their views and that more members of their group were prepared to sacrifice their lives. The chief organisers even threatened self-immolation in the event the beauty pageant was staged in Bangalore.
"The human body is the temple of God", according to the Scriptures. The dissident group considered over-exposure of the female torso in public sinful, but found self-immolation acceptable. Definitely something is amiss. Perhaps, the group campaigned under the motto, "No Beauty Without Flames."
Well, the pageant was held as scheduled but the self-immolation threat by the chief organisers was not carried out. Not surprisingly. It is likely that the sole object of the protest campaign was to divert world attention from the beauty pageant towards themselves.
The dissident group now has the dubious distinction of having organised a protest campaign that resulted in the death of two youths by self-immolation. It would have been considered sensible had the group spent time raising funds for the needy instead of encouraging others to play with fire.
We are a Women's Organization, who strongly oppose degradation and vulgarization of women by anyone.
We have observed that cinemas have constantly been exhibiting blatantly vulgar pictures of women in various postures, which are an eyesore to the public.
It is a pity that people have to stoop to such low levels to attract crowds. We feel that any man should remember his own mother, wife and daughters before he can portray another woman in such dresses and postures in the eyes of the public. A random survey of the crowd who frequent your cinema, will show that these films are corrupting the younger generation of our society, which we are sure includes your children and / or grandchildren too.
We strongly feel that such blatant violation of human decency in public is not only despicable but are polluting our once beautiful Island's environment too.
We humbly request you, in the name of the women and girls who are shamed by your posters as well as the youngsters who are getting perverted through them, to refrain from stooping to such low levels to earn filthy money. Money earned as such will never last and will not be of any worth for the salvation of the soul.
Meanwhile, we are calling upon the decent citizens of this country of ours to wake up from their slumber and do something to stop this degradation of our women. May decency and true moral values prevail to generate a sane society tomorrow.
I believe that most vehicle owners are aware that the government is making plans to issue a new number for the vehicles, as the authorities are finding difficult to cope up with the present system of issuing vehicle numbers. It is an intelligent move, any person will agree without any doubt. But the problem is that the authorities are planning to issue these numbers for a sum of rupees one thousand each. I do not understand as to how they get authority from the public to charge them again as they have done once. Also I believe it is the rightful duty of the authorities to issue these numbers free of charge, because no one of the public ever asked for this or wanted to. Vehicle owners must be quite happy with the present number on their vehicle.
The other question is, is it fair by any means to charge the million rupee luxury vehicle owner and the poor three wheeler or the few thousand rupees worth vehicle owner, the same amount. Is this not a harassment to the poor man? If the authorities really want to levy such a charge, why not ask the million rupee luxury vehicle owners to pay rupees ten thousand for his number and the poor few thousand rupee vehicle owner, about rupees fifty?
I believe this is the time for all those law personnel who live on the revenue of the public to come to the rescue of the fellow public by fighting this out to show the authorities that it is their duty to provide these numbers free of charge to those who pay the yearly licence fee etc.
Banners have been displayed in Several Post Officers requesting members of the public to use the new Postal Codes of the towns to which they are posting letters, to expedite delivery. However, it has to be pointed out that the general public have not been educated or informed through the print media what these Postal Codes are meant for and the different postal Codes allotted to the various Post Offices spread throughout the length and breadth of the island.
It is only when we walk into some Post Office that we see a number painted on the building or some other place to catch the eye of a person. That particular number is of no use to us as it refers to our local Post Office. What we should know are the 'Code numbers' assigned to outstation Post Offices for our use.
Therefore, I wish to suggest that the PMG should take immediate action to give all these Postal Code numbers assigned to the various Post Offices in the island in the Press, in all three languages, preferably in alphabetical order, for easy reference. Then we could keep a cutting of the press notice for our future guidance to fall in line with the request made by the postal authorities. I note that there is provision made already in the new stamped envelopes for inclusion of the Postal Codes.
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