Free Republic

Today's celebrities are well aware of their responsibilities as role models but can well do without public interference in their private lives. As tennis star Sania Mirza says, “As long as I'm winning, people shouldn't care whether my skirt is six inches long or six feet long.” Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Wednesday, Sania said, “How I dress is a very personal thing.” Wearing a long-sleeved black-and-white shirt with conservative black pants, she was speaking out in public for the first time since a cleric issued a fatwa against the way she dressed on court. Sania, who...

She is sensation personified. The Mirza girl called Sania is set to teach tennis to India. A living icon she has the youth of the country wowing her Indianness. Her being a Muslim adds substance to the matter. Carrying a basket of firsts she is the first sports Indian women to appear on Time, first female Indian to be ranked in the world 's top 40. She is again the first ever-Indian woman to reach the third round of Grand Slam and subsequently listed as one of the 10 people capable of changing the world by London's intellectual weekly New...

Fatwa for tennis star who wears short skirtsBy Peter Foster in New Delhi(Filed: 10/09/2005)India's leading female tennis player has been subjected to a fatwa by a Muslim cleric for wearing short skirts and revealing tops on the international tennis circuit. Sania Mirza comes from a devout Muslim family Sania Mirza, 18, who became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam at the US Open last week, is hugely popular in India.The fatwa - in effect, a demand that she cover up - was issued by a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board,...