KUALA LUMPUR – Working for years in the fashion industry, Malaysia’s first-ever playboy girl said a life of a model left her feeling “hollow and exploited”, and has led her to take the decision to convert to Islam.

“I am MORE, I believe that I am worthy of more than just showing off my body,” she once put it in her blog, Asia Media reported on Tuesday, April 4.

Yeap used to pose in Playboy Philippines after taking the modeling career in 2014.

During the period from 2014 and 2016, she lamented feelings that she was “used” by men who were only out looking for fun instead of a wife for marriage.

In misery and despair, Yeap says she realized that this was not the life for her and longed for something more.

“I started to look for something deeper…a religion, a God, a better way of living life. I wanted to cover myself up more…be respected and be known for who I am inside…not for how much flesh I am showing outside,” she wrote.

Yeap found solace in Islam and hijab, which, according to her, represented a symbol of comfort and a promise of respect.

Yeap writes: “If a religion could show me the beauty of life and living, why not try to understand it? Why detest it just because a few confused racists and extremists try to twist things around?”

By using her own talent and fame as an ex-Playboy Bunny, Yeap has chosen to establish a new career as a Muslimah model.

Yeap has shown that women can be both powerful, beautiful and respected all at once.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

The status of women in Islam is often the target of attacks in the secular media, with many citing the Islamic dress as an example of the “subjugation” of women under Islamic law.

Yet, the truth is that 1400 years ago, Islam recognized women’s rights in a way that grants them the utmost protection and respect as well, a combination other systems fail to offer.

Islam granted them freedom of expression, political participation, business and financial rights, and asked the rest of society to hold them in high esteem and offer them due respect as mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters.