A resignation, arrest follows.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: It’s hard to imagine talking about the daughters of the US President Barack Obama, Sasha Obama, 13, and Malia Obama, 16, in the same breath as the Bollywood actress and reality TV star Gauhar Khan, but the trio are now bound by a common controversy that has made headlines in the US and India this week: short skirts.
The controversy has ended on the two continents, more or less, with a quick resignation in one, and even faster arrest in the other.
Elizabeth Lauten, the communications director for Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher, announced her resignation today, after her admonishment, mixed with downright crude remarks with political overtones on Facebook against the Obama sisters for wearing short skirts at the National Thanksgiving Turkey meet on November 26, at the White House, went viral and she faced a deluge of criticism.
This is what Lauten wrote on Facebook: “Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.”
“Nevertheless, stretch yourself,” Lauten added. “Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.”
For the record, the teenagers were dressed in sweaters, worn over a dress, a staple of fashionable teenagers all around the world.
If Lauten’s comments were astonishing, then the case involving Khan may not have come across as a complete surprise to many in India, where controversies rise on a daily basis at homes all across the country over the length of a skirt worn by a school or college-going girl or woman. What a woman should not wear is a hot button issue in some state or the other in India through the year.
However, what was shocking is that Khan got slapped for wearing the dress of her choice, and that too by a 24-year-old man sitting in the audience of the sets of a reality TV show, ‘India’s Raw Star’ yesterday, on Sunday. The man first heckled Khan, a co-host of the show, and when she protested, got into an argument with her for wearing a short skirt.
The man was quoted as telling Khan, who acted in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, and won last season’s Bigg Boss reality TV contest, to the effect that “being a Muslim woman, she should not have worn such a short dress”.
He then slapped Khan.
The man was immediately apprehended and handed over to the police, who arrested him.