TO THE youth of India, she symbolises the optimism of their rapidly changing nation. But to one of its leading Muslim groups she represents a malign influence on young minds and it has issued a fatwa against her.

Sania Mirza, the 18-year-old Indian tennis star, is the most successful female player in the country’s history. The Indian media has proclaimed “Sania mania”, and her game has ignited a huge interest in tennis among a nation of cricket lovers.

Her image is on billboards and her endorsement fee matches that of the cricketer Rahul Dravid, and is second only to the batsman Sachin Tendulkar. She rarely ventures outside her family home in Hyderabad without a bodyguard.

In the past year her world ranking has jumped to 42, making her the fastest riser on the Women’s Tennis Association tour and the first Indian woman to enter the top 50. She became the first Indian female player to reach the fourth round of the US Open, losing to Maria Sharapova.

As a practising Muslim, the teenager’s confident attitude, sassy T-shirts and fondness for ear piercings have been as scrutinised as her games.

This week, however, her status as India’s newest sporting icon raised the hackles of an Islamic group, and a leading cleric issued a fatwa against the player, citing her tennis skirt and T-shirt as “indecent”.

“It leaves nothing to the imagination,” Hasheeb-ul-Hasan Siddiqui, of the Sunni Ulema Board, said. The board added that the clothes she wore in advertisements were “no better”.

He was also critical of her status as a role model, saying that “for an entire generation of young Muslim girls . . . she will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence”.

The cleric suggested that the female badminton team from Iran, who played in the Asian Badminton Championship in Hyderabad this week wearing cloaks and headscarves, were better role models for Indian Muslim women.

Ms Mirza has refused to be drawn into the controversy over what she wears on court. “Every word I speak, every skirt I wear is discussed and analysed. I have to take all this in my stride,” she said on returning from the US Open. She added: “It is quite disturbing that my dress has become the subject of controversy. I don’t want to say anything on this.”

India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population. Although the board has no legal power, its views are adhered to by many religious Muslims. Until now, Ms Mirza’s choice of dress has made headlines for their sense of humour. At Wimbledon this summer her T-shirt had the slogan: “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

She told reporters: “It’s just a T-shirt. I can say what I want to. I think I like to be 18 sometimes and I just like to wear some fun T-shirts once in a while.”

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