Woman Shares How She Was Denied Entry To The KL Library Because Of Her "Revealing" Clothes
Unis told SAYS that she hopes the library will revise its policy which mainly targets women.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify Unis' response to a security guard.
A woman shared on Twitter that she was denied entry to the Kuala Lumpur Library recently because her clothes were considered too revealing
On 12 August, user @SyarifahAmin, also known as Unis, uploaded a photo of herself along with a caption that read, "Got denied entry into Perpustakaan Kuala Lumpur this morning because of 'pakaian menjolok mata' (revealing clothes) 'sebab nampak bra' (because my bra was showing). This was what I was wearing."
The tweet has since garnered over 1,400 retweets and 95 replies.
The woman shared that she was wearing a white shirt and long trousers.
In her thread, she mused that had she not been wearing a bra, then her nipples would have shown.
In a separate tweet, she explained that she had told the library staff, "I came here to study. I'm wearing long sleeves and long pants. I'm not going to wear a sweater to cover my bra lines."
SAYS reached out to the Kuala Lumpur Library regarding the incident, but they have yet to issue a statement.
Unis also told SAYS that she hopes the library will revise its policy which mainly targets women.
However, she stressed that she enjoys using the library facilities and hopes that no action will be taken against the security guard in particular.
She said, "I would be very happy to raise awareness on this matter. Public policies, a lot of them, target only women. I do not want [the guard] to lose their job because of this. I'm sure they are only doing their job according to their level of what is appropriate."
Several netizens were angered after hearing about the incident
One person wrote, "I'm glad you fought back, Unis. I don't see how this is 'inappropriate' dressing. Honestly, I would've done the same thing too. It's a library and you're just there to study for God's sake."
Meanwhile, another user said, "Utterly absurd that you had to endure this. Creepy obsession with policing women's bodies, the way we dress. How did we get here and how do we get the heck out. Glad you pushed back, but frustrating that you had to in the first place."
"How the heck is this menjolok mata? In cases like these, I can't help but feel like the people who over police women's bodies are also the people hypersexualising femininity - not everything that a woman wears is meant to be attractive or sexy to others! People have got to stop projecting!"
There have been many instances in Malaysia where women were denied entry into a public space because of the way they dressed:
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