Crowds burn tennis star's effigy after safe sex remarks

Midriff-baring Indian tennis star Sania Mirza said she is opposed to premarital sex – as angry crowds burned effigies of the 19-year-old Muslim known for her short skirts over earlier remarks she made advocating safe sex.

“I would like to clearly say on record that I could not possibly justify premarital sex, as it is a very big sin in Islam and one which I believe will not be forgiven by Allah,” India’s first woman to reach the fourth round of any Grand Slam tennis tournament said in a statement yesterday.

The protests were triggered by her statement at a leadership summit earlier this week in New Delhi.

“So there are two issues here, safe sex and sex before marriage. You don’t want me to tell you that you have safe sex, whether it is before or after marriage. Everyone must know what he or she is doing,” she said.

Her statement angered Muslim clergy.

“If she has said these things, she would have nothing to do with Islam,” Haseeb Hasan Siddiqui of the Sunni Ulema (religious leaders) Board was quoted as saying by the Pioneer newspaper.

Earlier in the day, small groups of protesters from the student wings of mainstream Hindu nationalist political parties held demonstrations and burned paper effigies of her in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, and three other towns in the southern state.

Kiran Kumar, a student leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said young stars should behave with dignity and be good role models.

Mirza is already facing criticism over her dress on the tennis court, usually a short skirt and a midriff-revealing T-shirt.

Sections of orthodox Muslim clergy say she is leading young Muslims, especially girls, astray.

India’s Sunni Ulema Board, a Muslim organisation, issued an edict in October demanding Mirza cover up during her matches. The group described her tennis clothes as “un-Islamic”.

“As long as I am winning, people shouldn’t care whether my skirt is six inches long or 6 feet long,” Mirza said at the leadership forum earlier this week.

“How I dress is very personal thing,” said Mirza.

“It is scary that every time I wear a T-shirt, it becomes a talking point for the next three days,” she said.

In August, she became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of any Grand Slam, but made it no further in the US Open, losing to Maria Sharapova, then ranked No 1.

She is now ranked No 31 on the WTA Tour, up from No 326 a little more than a year ago.