KUALA LUMPUR: Tired of seeing certain “news” making headlines of late, actor and TV host Awal Ashaari hopes the authorities can come up with a solution regarding the gender identity of a certain Malaysian.
The 38-year-old artiste took to Instagram to share his two cents on the matter via an Insta-story yesterday.
“One’s gender identity has become a national issue. The person who created this controversy is perhaps smiling, seeing that the entire country is talking about it,” wrote Awal without naming the person directly.
However, based on his entry, it is believed that Awal was referring to the controversy surrounding cosmetic entrepreneur Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman a.k.a. Nur Sajat who went to perform umrah recently dressed as a woman.
“We need to put a stop to this nonsense. Everything that this person does, would become an ‘issue’ and none of it can be taken as positive. May be Jakim (Malaysian Islamic Development Department) can solve this matter once and for all. Once Jakim had met with Sajat, but nothing seemed to be resolved from that meeting.
“If indeed he or she was born special, let’s get this confirmed for one last time, so that that person will be able to carry on with his or her life.”
Awal said he was voicing out his opinion not because he wanted to rock the boat, but this issue could be avoided altogether if only the real gender identity had been established from the start.
“This is not a small matter as it involved religion and the Holy land.”