KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian singer Masya Masyitah, who recently divided public opinion after posting photos of herself without a tudung, has broken her silence on the matter.

In a recent Instagram live stream, Masya said it was her choice to remove her tudung and that no one forced her to do so.

The 23-year-old celebrity told netizens to stop blaming her parents for her actions.

“If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me. Don’t blame my parents or say my mum was the one who encouraged me to remove my tudung.

“I did this on my own, so I will take responsibility,” said the Kedah-born singer of the hit Halimunan.

During the live stream, Masya addressed the criticisms, saying that most of those comments came from people who were waiting to see celebrities mess up.

She added that she wanted to live freely.

“I don’t want to be an artiste or be part of the world of glamour anymore. I just want to be an ordinary person.

“I have received so many job offers, but I rejected them. I just want to rest,” she said, adding that she plans to be a businesswoman.

On July 30, Masya – who usually shares photos of herself wearing a tudung – posted several pictures of herself without one.

In them, she was seen wearing a pastel-pink outfit with matching pink hair, inspired by the Barbie (2023) movie.

Two days later, she uploaded several pictures of herself in a blue denim jacket, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

In an update last Saturday, Masya shared several snaps of herself wearing shorts. While some have reprimanded her for the photos and threatened to unfollow her on Instagram, others said she looked good.

Despite the criticisms, the number of her followers has increased, from 775,000 on July 30 to 824,000 as at Thursday.

Masya gained popularity in 2014 after being crowned champion in the second season of singing competition Ceria Popstar.

She studied in a Chinese school and has multiple videos covering Mandarin songs on her YouTube channel. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK