A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said.

Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father’s house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the van turned around and brought her back.

“They sent her back to the house. They said the top official asked them not to bring her to Kuala Lumpur,” said Kartika’s father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib.

It was not immediately known whether authorities had dropped the sentence or postponed it. It was also not clear who had ordered Kartika returned.

“Now I am frightened and I am going to the police station to make a report,” the father said. “I don’t want them to say that Kartika ran away when they came here. I want them to know she was returned.”

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Rowaida Abdelaziz doesn’t want your pity. Rowaida Abdelaziz says wearing the hijab sometimes interferes with usual U.S. teenager activities, but that it’s worth it to her faith.

Rowaida Abdelaziz says wearing the hijab sometimes interferes with usual U.S. teenager activities, but that it’s worth it to her faith.

She doesn’t want your frosty public stares; the whispers behind her back; the lament that she’s been degraded by her father.

What the Muslim high school senior wants you to understand is that she doesn’t wear the hijab, the head scarf worn by Muslim women, because she is submissive.

“It represents beauty to me,” says Abdelaziz, the 17-year-old daughter of two Egyptian parents living in Old Bridge, New Jersey.

“My mom says a girl is like a jewel,” Abdelaziz says. “When you have something precious, you usually hide it. You want to make sure you keep it safe until that treasure is ready to be found.”

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