KUALA KRAI: Two of the seven youths who were recently hauled up for wearing thigh-length shorts said they were still in shock over their encounter with the religious authorities here.
The two friends said they did not realise all this while that wearing shorts was deemed as an offence in Kelantan.
Describing their encounter with the religious authorities as a nightmare, Zack (not his real name), said he still wondered why he had to go through the ordeal.
"We were caught by surprise...we have been wearing the same shorts all this while without any issues.
"However, after our encounter with the religious authorities we feel restless doing anything now," the 18-year old fruit seller said.
Recalling the incident, Zack who is from Bukit Sireh, said he went to a shisha centre to meet up with his best friend who is from Temalir.
"After completing our work restock fruits at our stall about 10pm, we decided to meet up at the shisha centre in Tanah Merah town."
"It was our first time there and after about 20 minutes there we saw several men wearing enforcement jackets entering the premise."
"We did not expect anything amiss until one of the male officer approached us. He asked us whether we realised that we did not cover our aurat and it is an offence."
Zack said he and his friends tried to reason with the officer but the latter insisted on issuing them with a notice.
He added that five other people in the premise were also issued with similar notices
"All of us were then told to go to the Tanah Merah religious office for counselling sessions two days later.
"We spent more than one hour there," he said.
Zack said he and his friends have accepted the incident as a lesson and promised their parents not to go to the centre again.
He said many of his friends were also suprised upon hearing about their ordeal as they also did not know about the rules governing males wearing shorts.
"The state authority owes the public an explanation about this ruling.
"They cannot just turn up and issue notices to people just like that," he said.
Last Friday, Kelantan Religious Affairs Department (JHEAIK) issued warning notices to seven men for breaching Sections 21 and 23 of the Kelantan's Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019.
The men were caught at a sisha outlet in Gertak Chaber, Tanah Merah.
JHEAIK chief assistant director Mohd Fadzuli Mohd Zain was quoted as saying that the youth had acted against provisions in the Syariah law and they could be fined RM2,000 or sentenced to one year's jail.
He said Section 23 entailed exposing the "aurat" (parts of the body that need to be covered). For this, the offenders faced a RM1,000 fine and six months' jail.