Malaysia TV Blurs Out Jessica Chastain’s, Halle Berry’s ‘Revealing’ Oscar Gowns

The Malaysian television network TV3 is facing days of ongoing condemnation at home after censoring the bodies of Hollywood actresses Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry during a news report on Everything Everywhere All at Once star Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Malaysian to win an Oscar.

Malaysia is a majority Muslim country with a sizable Buddhist minority. Islam is extremely prevalent in political and cultural life. Fundamentalist Islamic campaigns against Western culture, from calls to ban Western food products to protests against Valentine’s Day, are not uncommon in the country.

Malaysia has an Islamist morality police division tasked with enforcing Sharia, or the Islamic law, among Muslims. While every Malaysian is registered under their religion, members of minority religious have complained of harassment by the Sharia police, anyway, including street harassment and home raids on suspected haram behavior.

Chastain and Berry presented the award for Best Actress on Sunday, one of six awards that Everything Everywhere swept at Sunday’s Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The stars wore sleeveless dresses with low necks, not particularly revealing compared to other attendees, including Yeoh, who was not censored.

The TV3 broadcast blurred the bodies of Chastain and Berry from the neck down and censored their clothed chests when the camera framed them from the waist up. The blurring did not hide the general form of their dresses. Malaysian viewers complained that the blurring, rather than covering up any allegedly inappropriate body parts, made the dresses appear to be more scandalous than they really are.

The Singapore outlet Mothership described the general response from the Malaysian public to the censorship as one of “confusion and dismay,” as most did not consider the women’s dresses inappropriate for a formal event in California.

“Some said the censorship was unnecessary as it made the women appear more indecent when they were properly clothed,” Mothership noted. Others complained that it detracted from Yeoh’s win, a historic moment for Malaysia.

On Twitter, one user shared footage from Malaysian television that similarly censored a man’s bare chest, using light blurring that did little to cover up the man’s body.

Yeoh’s victory was nonetheless met with near-universal celebration in her home country, where media refer to her as “Tan Sri,” an honorific recognizing the country awarded her its Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM), or “Most Esteemed Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia,” in 2013. Among those first in line to congratulate Yeoh were the king and queen of Malaysia and its prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

“The Government joins the nation in expressing warmest and heartiest congratulations to Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh for winning the highly coveted Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles today,” Anwar wrote in a post published on Facebook. “In creating history by being not just the first Malaysian but the very first Asian actress to win in this category, we take enormous pride in her achievement, adding to a long list of successes and capping a critically acclaimed acting career spanning decades.”

Malaysia’s national film corporation, FINAS, also expressed its support to the actress.

“Finas would like to congratulate Malaysia-born actress Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, who has created history by winning Best Actress at the 95th Academy Awards for her role in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once,'” a statement from the organization read. “This achievement makes her the first Asian star to win in that category in the history of the Oscars.”

At least one prominent Islamic preacher condemned the country for recognizing Yeoh’s achievement. Celebrity cleric PU Syed published a social media post questioning how Everything Everywhere‘s Oscars win benefitted Islam, and how it could be a matter of pride if it did not do so.

“We cannot be proud of something that doesn’t benefit Islam. Let them be proud of that achievement, but not us those who are of faith,” the cleric wrote. “How does it make Malaysia proud? What is there to be proud of?”

Islamic activists in Malaysia have often rejected Western cultural influences through protests and harassment of businesses and other who partake. Alongside neighboring Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, Malaysia is a hotspot for anti-St. Valentine’s Day activism, whose adherents argue the holiday, in addition to having Catholic origins, promotes fornication and general inappropriate exchanges between men and women.

Western food companies have also been the target of aggressive boycott campaigns for allegedly violating Sharia. In 2014, for example, the British chocolate company Cadbury became the focus of protests after Malaysian health officials found traces of pork in multiple sweets seeking halal certification. Eating pork violates Sharia. The products in question were recalled and subsequent tests on Cadbury products tested negative for pork, and received the government’s halal certification, but some activists persisted in advocacy against the company.

“They stuffed pigs into our mouths, then apologized,” one boycott leader, Azwanddin Hamzah, said at the time.

More recently, in 2021, halal activists called for boycotts against Coca-Cola for doing business with Israel. The company responded with a statement clarifying that it has a “long-standing commitment to the Palestinian market” and any Coca-Cola sold in Malaysia was “made here in Malaysia, for Malaysians and by Malaysians.”

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