PCB's marketing chief Dr Ahsan Hameed Malik's recent statement regarding female cheerleaders in next year's PPL was astonishing to say the least. "Having the sort of cheerleaders currently engaged with the IPL here in Pakistan would be culturally offensive" he remarked. Culturally offensive? Scantily clad young girls dancing for no particular reason is just 'culturally offensive'? Why doesn't he say that such a feature will not be accepted in our society because it is un-Islamic? Why are our high-ups always so afraid of bringing Islam into the equation? Cricket-followers in India staged protests against these cheerleaders because they felt that this was against their traditional values. Why can't we issue a simple statement that we discourage such displays here in Pakistan because they are forbidden in our religion? I am sure that the majority of our public would agree that a display of this kind is against the respect of a woman of a civilized society. And that is why Islam discourages it. Is it too hard for us to understand that we do not need to borrow everything from the West in order to progress? -ASAD SULEMAN, Islamabad, via e-mail, June 15.