Kerala: Muslim cleric berates school award organisers for inviting girl student on stage

Thursday, May 12, 2022

In a most recent case an innocent expectation of appreciation of academic excellence by a Muslim girl student became a cause of a moment frowned upon by an orthodox Muslim clergy; whether women should view it positively at least she has access to some education when many girls do not get that too or see it skeptically as an example of continued denial of access to public places to women in South Asia?

A cleric of a prominent Muslim orthodox religious orgnisation in Karala, a southern state of India, got telecasted live while berating their school award organisers for inviting the teenage awardee girl student Mashida P. V. on stage instead of giving award for her in her parents hands as per their organizational orthodox policy of gender segregation.

The instance occurred at a function which was held as part of the annual event of the Madrasa near Panangangara in Perinthalmanna. The school functionaries invited the girl to the stage to receive an award for excellence in education. Instantaneously Abdullah Musliyar, the institution’s clerical dignitary, publicly criticized the school organizers in the presence of the girl by pointing out that this was against the institutional ideology of Samastha.

As per reports, ” .. Who called the class 10 girl to the stage? Will show you if girls are called to the stage once again. Don’t call such girls here. Don’t you know Samastha’s decision? Tell the girl’s parent to come. Are you doing unnecessary work in our presence?, .. “, the cleric retorted on the stage. Although the girl who walked on the stage was in full abaya, as per the strict Islamic dress code. As per Kerala Kaumudi. The video came to light from the Sunni Ulama Followers Facebook page related to Samastha. The cleric Musliyar’s retort has got a lot of flak, including on social media from some progressive civil society, where as some other Islamist sources went on to defend the clerics position and equated the criticism to Islamophobia.

PK Nawaz, state president of MSF said that the cleric is being portrayed in an attempt to show the Muslim scholars in barbaric and anti-feminist light. On his facebook page Nawaz wrote that, Those who attempt to portray the Musliyar in a bad light should be isolated. Criticisms are not naive and propaganda by certain communal institutions to promote Islamophobia. Musliyar is an honorific associated with South Indian, chiefly Malayali, scholars of Islam. The Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan who is well known in India for his progressive outlook specially promoting Muslim Women’s rights questioned silence of the state and media, according to Indian Express, the Governor criticizing the stand of clerics said that “ .. She was wearing a hijab. Then why were they insulting her? Because, your ultimate purpose is not hijab. They are the people who are responsible for creating Islamophobia. I have a fear that if they had an upper hand, they would have imposed their code on every woman, .. ”.

In India’s southern state of Kerala, which is known for best male to female ratio on population index, best literacy ratio; also gets highlighted in Indian media for cases of gender discrimination from orthodoxies of various religious dominions. In most recent case social ostracism of Indian classical dancers mainly women by some orthodoxies among both Muslims, Christians and Hindus for dancing (Dance of Hindu origin). while being a non-Hindu.

• • • Imported from en WP ***

In Kerala’s one of popular Temple Sabarimala, management puts religious restriction against entry of women of age 10 to 50. This is based on tradition of the temple to respect the celibate nature of the deity, similar restrictions are present against entry of men in other Hindu temples such as the Pushkar Brahma Temple,^[1][2][3] and the Kamakhya Temple in Visakhapatnam.^[4]. The case is before Supreme Court of India for constitutional review.

• • • End of import from en WP***

Similar issues of Mosque, Dargah and graveyard entry for Muslim women in India exist for example, The Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai, India; entry of women to the sanctum of the shrine was restricted starting 2012 until an intervention by the Bombay High Court in 2016.

Delete this paragraph, and start typing your article in its place. For Wikilinks, use the {{w}} template, for example, {{w|Target page|Display text}}.

[edit]