Julia Baird notes a good point made by Waleed Aly - who can look inside someone else’s heart? Who should cast the first stone, given that no one has appointed us delegates of the Divine in judging? The whole debate about her burqa “fake Muslim” fashion statement ignores quite a few things.
The first is that we live in a society - where for the first time in a long while (there are parallels with the pre-Constantinian Roman Empire and other cultures which were religiously syncretistic) - we can exercise individual choice over what we believe and what religion (if any) we choose to follow. The sociologist Anthony Giddens expresses this fact forcefully when he observes that in a post-traditional society, one can be baptised an Anglican but choose later in life to live as a Buddhist. This degree of choice in religious expression spills over into the established churches of the West - in the sense of “Cafeteria Catholicism” - where believers pick and choose which dogmas they want to adhere to - and in the more liberal versions of Protestantism where any substantive belief is increasingly emptied out altogether. The appeal of fundamentalist Christianities - and sometimes of other religions offering certainty such as Islam - in Western society can be seen in part as a reaction to the extension of individuality and choice to the religious sphere.
Michelle Leslie’s Islamic affiliation can be seen in two ways - as an interesting extension of a sociological phenomenon to a place where it doesn’t usually stretch - conversion to Islam; and as an exemplar of a distinction that ought to be made when talking about individuals’ religion - the fact that others should be loathe to rush to judgement on their relationship with their God/s.
What explains the reaction to Leslie’s career as a model here in Australia, and its apparent incongruity with her faith and her manner of dress in Bali? As Caroline Overington writes in The Australian, it’s not as if there aren’t other Muslim women working as models, some of whome have posed nude, without abjuring their faith.
The answer is likely to lie in two other sociological trends.
The first is that immigrant communities (which the Australian Islamic faith largely subsists in) have a tendency to erect defensive cultural barriers for a while. Hence the reaction - she must be a “fake Muslim” (which was reinforced by our own stereotypes of what is “real” about Islam) - when as has been pointed out, the burqa is not standard Islamic dress, and reflects a particular cultural tradition. In societies where Islam is a majority religion, its customs blur at the edges, and some are less likely to be censorious about perceived “deviations”. But where it is a minority faith, and a faith which attracts few converts and is largely co-extensive with particular ethnic communities, there are likely to be strong trends from within and without the community to conform to what is perceived as behavioural orthodoxy.
The second is the desire for fame as giving meaning. In a post-traditional society, meaning is no longer pre-given through a particular religious, occupational, familial or ethnic ideology. I’ve written before about the cultural politics of fame.
Unintentially, probably, a representative of Leslie exemplifies this:
Mr Markson said Leslie had a lot of potential for a high-profile career following her Indonesian experience.
“She’s become famous, she’s a famous person now,” he said.
“I’m not a modelling agent, but I know the value of celebrity and I’m sure that she’s worth money to endorse products, to do commercial activities and her modelling rates, I’m sure, would go up.”
Mr Markson compared Leslie’s situation with that of British model Kate Moss, who lost lucrative contracts after revelations of a drug addiction, but was now again gracing the covers of international magazines.
“She’s become a bigger star then before,” Mr Markson said.
Interestingly, there’s the recognition that modelling is almost pure cultural capital (talent being a minor factor compared to say - acting or singing - personal appearance and deportment being almost all) and rises and falls with indices of media attention. At the same time, Markson’s comment that she wants to “give back to the community” by working for charity is a religiously inspired motif which signals a certain uneasiness with unearned fame - a desire to justify the self or the soul otherwise than through just the value of the marketable image.
In all of this, Michelle Leslie is very postmodern. As a postmodern Muslim, she holds up an interesting mirror to the condition of our social life.
What more natural way for a model to send a message about who she is than through a choice of fashion?
That others should be loath to judge about others’ Gods—hear, hear.
…
The tendency of immigrant communities to erect defensive barriers doesn’t have much to do with religion, though, I think. Social pressure on migrants not to assimilate comes in all kinds of forms, and isn’t anything new to this century or the last.
Alternately, maybe she was trying everything she could to stay out of a third world jail, and with a well-trained 21st century eye on capitalising on her experience as well.
I would certainly be thinking along the same lines if I got caught walking through Customs at Tan Son Nhat Airport with ten ekkies wrapped up in a roll of US$50 dollar bills stashed in a secret trouser pocket next to my crotch. However I was just waved on in the general direction of a metal detector and the exit so it’s a moot point for me.
Liam - I agree with that, and it was implicit in the post - ie the contrast between reaction in this society and other modern societies where Islam is the majority or better established.
Hell, I’d don a burqua and adopt Islam in order to avoid a decade or two in a Balinese jail - and I’m a bloke.
Mind you, I doubt that I would’ve had a career modelling underwear to lose as well.
I find it hard to express the extent of my empathy with poor Michelle.
Good analysis though I really can’t muster more than an “meh” about Leslie. I don’t care if she’s a muslim or not — that’s between her and her god, or her conscience, or whatever, as you point out Mark.
I just hope she doesn’t end up on ‘dancing with the stars’ which seems to be the shore upon which the most celebrity driftwood is beached.
I could see the same look in her eye I had when quaffing those free Krishna meals.
“Hari Hari [mmmm.. yum…] krishna krishna…”
test
I really can’t undertand the level of vitriol spewed towards Leslie (unless of course I have misunderstood something about the case).
Who cares if she was deceitful in wearing all black to the courthouse. She got off and that’s the important thing. She could have gone for a row if luck wasn’t on her side.
If she makes money as a result of her ordeal well and good. At least she is one of the few who can live to tell the tale.
Nice post -
OT, but what interests me is the way we jump all over these people - whether they’re called Shappelle or Michelle or whatever - seems they can do no right. While they’re going down we deride their pathetic appeal and when they win we go them for cheating. Even if it is cheating various forms of death.
If by a miracle Nguyen were to get a reprieve tomorrow it wouldn’t be long before he was being attacked for a faked conversion to Catholicism or something.
The level of ignorance about Islam displayed by “quality” press leads inexorably to the conclusion that they don’t have much day-to-day contact with Muslims. How gauche.
If she’s a muslim, her “conversion” was probably no different than that which many westerners undergo when they assert adherence to Buddhism. It’s the chic spiritualist smorgasbord thing which allows one to claim affinity with designer higher beings while avoiding any boringly restrictive life practices. You get the veneer of goodness with the huge advantage of being able to maintain a highly secularist existence. In Michelle’s case, it appears to have been inspired by a friendship. Designer adherence often is.
Not even the most liberal interpretation of Islam would permit consumption of ecstasy, attendance at all night dance parties or a young woman sharing a house and a sexual relationaship with a man to whom she isn’t married. There are of course many funloving, cultural - but not particularly religious - muslims who do all these things without sharing too many of the details with the family, but Leslie has no muslim cultural heritage.
I just thought it was a totally dumbass move for a western chick previously noted for her lingerie modelling moves to front up in a Balinese court in a Haj travelling ensemble. If I was a judge, I would have thought: “this young woman’s lawyers must think I’m a total tool.”
I suspect that strategic funds transfer may have had far more impact than Michelle’s wardrobe and I’m willing to bet big money that she doesn’t wear a burqa when she inevitably does appear on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Geoff is somewhat correct however she could do all those things BUT if she had done a certain amount of ‘good deeds’ then she would be in the clear so to speak.
although when she dies , if it did not happen in a jihad, and even if her good deeds outweighed her bad deeds she could still not go to paradise if God has a ‘badhair’day!
Homer, given the singularity of your crusade, shouldn’t that be “Bring back the Evil One?”
Geoff,
you cannot bring back the Evil One because he is amongst us now.
He doesn’t leave until a certain gentleman decides to come back!
Fyodor?
No his mother was jewish but his father is out of this world!
I’m with Geoff. The burqa was a dumb move and quite condescending to the Indonesians. Nevermind that the judges were just as likley to be non-muslim in Bali. As if they were superstious rubes would be suddenly moved by her Islamic piety.
Now if you have money and government connections on the other hand.
I could see the same look in her eye I had when quaffing those free Krishna meals.
“hari hari…. [mmm… yum….. can’t believe Im getting away with this…] krishna krishna….”
isn’t she a vegitarian?
She isn’t allowed a hamburqua
Leslie was caught with two tablets of ectasy. She was not an innocent babe in the woods. Nor was she facing death as hinted by Joe C’s hyperbole. Now I agree that drug penalties are way over the top in Indonesia and Asia in general (including the possibility of death facing the Bali Nine) however Leslie made a stupid mistake.
I feel for Van Nguyen. He should face a lengthy sentence and not be sacrifced for the “war on drugs.” The drug trade will not be affected one iota by his death. The ones who profit handsomely from the trade will go on unaffected. The addicts will still find their fix.
I feel for Schapelle Corby as it seems that there is some element of doubt in her very strange case.
Credit for Leslie and her legal team for a better defence strategy (try eveything including bribes). However I don’t see why I should pity or feel sorry for her.
As Mark’s OP pointed out, Leslie is now a celebrity. You may very well ask to leave the poor girl alone but who will ask Leslie to leave us alone from her attempts to cash in?
Leslie was already a celebrity.
Corby was a sham which few in the drug squad in Sydney believe.
Van nguyen was an idiot who knew the consequences.
Having said that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime
Yeah, well Singapore will only be establishing what of bunch of primitive, backwoods, authoritarian banjo-pluckers they are if (or, sadly, when) they hang him. Take a step into the the 21st century, you barbaric, pre-modern recalcitrants.
I wont be stopping over there again if this state murder proceeeds.
actually I meant it the other way.
you don’t sell coal to Newcastle.
Incidentally, Melburnians, I understand there’ll be a vigil for Nguyen on the steps of the County Court in the city from 8.45am tomorrow.
She obviously had good legal advice for her to end up with the outcome that she did.
As another said above, I’d do whatever was required to get me the hell out of there, including wearing what ever dress was required - when in Rome. . .
If the Parents have mortgaged their hoem and spent their life savings as claimed - I would be really interested to see a paper trail of the money spent. Do Indonesian lawyers really cost a few $100,000 to run a drugs trial???
I heard that it cost Packer (the guy with the guns and the small ship) about $750,000 to get the hell out of dodge.
Nations have to have legal systems, and people need to abide by laws, even in cases where drug addiction and traffficing is involved, but there is something hard-hearted about the way Singapore has gone about the execution of Van Nguyen.
Today it is reported that his mother has been granted only limited contact because, “Like many jurisdictions that authorise capital punishment, Singapore does not allow ‘contact’ visits between prisoners and family members. Such encounters can be traumatic and are likely to destabilise the prisoners and their family members.”
I can’t think of anything more destabilising than the thought of death, particularly when you know the exact time and method. Most people have no idea when their days are up. they might be told that they have weeks or days to live because of a terminal illness, but even they don’t know the exact moment. This must be a terrifying trauma for this young man, and for his mother.
It seems that potential emotional outbursts are frowned upon by this system. They forget about this man’s family who will have to come to terms with the degradation and shame of the way their son, brother, nephew, whatever, has to leave them in such a public way.
We need justice, but we also need mercy. It’s difficult decision for any system, because law should be a deterrant and for some it isn’t. Singapore wants a illicit-drug free nation. This is acceptable, and strong laws are also acceptable, but a system without an outlet for mercy isn’t.