“She has modified the Phanek into a miniskirt and a coat and also converted the Rani Phee into Kurta. DESAM condemns this act of her and treated it as a threat and disrespect to our cultural rights and tradition,” said the student body
TFM Desk
Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) on Wednesday lashed out at ‘self-proclaimed designer’ Priyanka Anna Joseph for culturally misrepresenting and interpreting in social media by disregarding the cultural significance of the Meitei’s Phanek Mayeknaiba. It urged the Manipur government to take necessary action.
“She has modified the Phanek into a miniskirt and a coat and also converted the Rani Phee into Kurta. DESAM condemns this act of hers and treats it as a threat and disrespect to our cultural rights and tradition,” said the student body.
In a strongly worded press statement, DESAM said, “She has also hurt the sentiments of the Meetei community as we regard the Phanek in an auspicious way. Meeteis wear the Mayek naiba Phanek only in cultural or formal functions to identify themselves and not so casually and sometimes politically as a resistance.”
She thus converted the Phanek, which has a cultural, social and political value into something that proves that she doesn’t regard and respect our culture but has represented in a way the community never wanted to be represented, it added.
DESAM appreciates modernisation taken by different designers of the community and always have supported them but we don’t support misinterpretation, it said
The student body further said, “The Meitei always regards the Phaneks as a distinctive sacred thing where there is a belief that a piece of torn Phanek is said to protect their sons and daughters. The communities of Meitei and Meitei Pangal also stand proud of the Phanek Mayeknaiba as our cultural heritage.”
The act of Priyanka Anna Joseph is not acceptable to the community who has always had a distinctive dress code, it said. “She has used the Phanek Mayeknaiba to mock and disrespect our culture which is a crime and she should apologise publicly, Professionalism, modernization, and human rights are complementary to one another and they go hand in hand but it should not jeopardize the core cultural values or tradition,” said the student body.
And so dress and costumes of ethnic communities should always be looked on carefully before doing something or else that triggers into hurting the cultural sentiments. So we should always keep in mind to balance ethics, professionalism, and human rights with cultural rights, it added.
The student said they didn’t want anyone to mock our culture by misrepresenting it. It appealed to everyone not to misinterpret their culture in the coming future, and also requested everyone not to hurt the cultural sentiments of other ethnic communities too.