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November 18, 2005
Australia: Muslim Model, Michelle Leslie, Warned About Lingerie Ads
Adelaide-born Michelle Leslie had it all, a striking face and physique, and the camera loved her. A half-Filipino model who famously advertised Antz Pantz and Crystelle Lingerie, Michelle's life took a turn for the worse when she took a holiday on the Indonesian island of Bali.
At Kuta beach on August 1 this year, two tablets of MDMA (ecstasy) were found inside her Gucci handbag, and the glamorous life seemed to be over. She was held in jail, awaiting trial, knowing that Australian PM, John Howard, had a policy of not assisting his citizens if they committed drugs offences abroad.
Michelle was facing a possible sentence of 15 years in an Indonesian prison. Maybe to appease her captors, she then made an amazing announcement. On August 29, she told the world that she had become a convert to Islam. She even made an appearance in court dressed in a burka (picture below). Her court case began on 28 October at Denpasar District Court.
Last week, The Age reported that she made a dramatic plea for mercy to the prosecutors. A psychiatrist, Dr Denny Thong, had separately told the court that Michelle had turned to ecstasy to ease anxiety and stress. The prosecutors agreed to not demand the full 15 year sentence, and said they would only press for the minimum sentence, of three months' jail.
Today, Michelle's court case was finished. She was found guilty of possessing ecstasy, and was handed a three month sentence. As she has already spent three months in prison since her arrest, she is expected to be arriving in Australia soon. But there has been a warning for Michelle from Dr Ameer Ali, of Australia's Federation of Islamic Councils.
Today's Australian Daily Telegraph states that Michelle already has two modelling assignments lined up for when she arrives back home, but Dr Ameer Ali is not amused at the idea of a Muslim woman slinking about in sexy underwear for a photo-shoot. He accuses Michelle of treating Islam as a fad.
"If she is a Muslim I don't think she should go back to her job as an underwear model because Islam is about modesty," he says. "Taking off her clothes and being half-naked on the catwalk will raise a lot of eyebrows in the community. She can't have it both ways. Either practice Islam and do something decent or don't practice it at all."
Various agencies are interested in using Michelle's striking looks to enhance products, so the Australian non-Muslim community appears to have forgiven her. After all, being banged up for three months for possessing two pills is bad enough, let alone the accompanying fears that one could be spending 15 years incarcerated.
It will be fascinating to see how this case develops. If she decides to strip down to her lingerie and remain a Muslim, that will be an interesting scenario. If she abandons Islam altogether and then becomes victimised for being an apostate by other frumpy and Medieval Australian Muslims, she could end up getting so much publicity she could become an international supermodel.
But wearing a burka, when you have looks that others would spend thousands of dollars in surgery to achieve? Just to appease some old fart of a cleric? Somehow, I just don't think so.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 18, 2005 6:24 PM
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