Deoband decree banning Muslim women from work draws community ire

Darul Uloom Deoband, the self-appointed guardian for Indian Muslims, has drawn lot of criticism from Muslim women organizations and rights activists for saying Muslim women should not work in offices, mix with men and should not earn money to support the family.

Interpreting Muslim laws, the Deoband decreed that it is "haram" and illegal according to the Sharia for a family to accept a woman's earnings. Clerics at the largest Sunni Muslim seminary after Cairo's Al-Azhar said the decree flowed from the fact that the Sharia prohibited proximity of men and women in the workplace.

"It is unlawful (under the Sharia law) for Muslim women to work in the government or private sector where men and women work together and women have to talk with men frankly and without a veil," said the fatwa issued by a bench of three clerics. The decree was issued over the weekend, but became public later, seminary sources said.

At a time when there is a growing number of educated Muslim women seeking jobs, under quotas for Muslims in India and a yearning for progress in the community that sees itself as neglected, the fatwa, although unlikely to be heeded, is clearly a retrograde move.

Even the most conservative Islamic countries, which restrict activities of women, including preventing them from driving, do not bar women from working. At the peak of its power, the Taliban only barred women in professions like medicine from treating men and vice versa. But there was a never a blanket ban on working, although the mullahs made it amply clear that they would like to see the women confined to homes.

The fatwa, however, drew flak among other clerics. "Men and women in Sharia are entitled to equal rights. If men follow the Sharia, there is no reason why women can't work with them," said Rasheed, the Naib Imam of Lucknow's main Eidgah Mosque in Aishbagh. Mufti Maulana Khalid Rasheed of Darul Ifta Firangi Meheli -- another radical Islamic body which also issues fatwas -- criticized the Deoband fatwa as a retrograde restriction on Muslim women.

Well-known Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, however, justified the fatwa. "Women in Islam are not supposed to go out and earn a living. It's the responsibility of the males in the family," he said. "If a woman has to go for a job, she must make sure that the Sharia restrictions are not compromised," he added, citing the example of Iran, where Muslim women work in offices but have separate seating areas, away from their male counterparts.

In Lucknow, a city with strong secular and progressive traditions, where Muslim families train their daughters to be doctors, engineers and executives, there was a sense of shocked disbelief even in conservative quarters that such a decree could come from those who consider themselves to be advocates of the community.

"I am also a working woman and also ensure that my Sharia is not compromised," said Rukhsana, a lecturer at a girl's college in Lucknow and a member of the executive committee of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). "It's not necessary that one would have to go against the Sharia when going to work."

"Name one Islamic country which does not have a national airline and does not hire airhostesses? If I know correctly, even the Saudi Airlines has hostesses and they don't wear a veil," said Shabeena Parveen, a computer professional in the city.

Meanwhile, Darul Uloom Deoband has denied asking Muslim women not to work along with men and said it only suggested that working women should dress "properly". "We had only given an opinion based on Sharia that women need to be properly covered in government and private offices," said Maulana Adnan Munshi, spokesman for the seminary in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He denied a media report that the seminary was opposed to men and women working together This was seem as a damage-control exercise, following widespread attack on the fatwa on working Muslim women.

Muslim woman British minister

The Deoband’s controversial decree comes in the backdrop of the appointment of a Muslim woman Cabinet minister in Britain. She's colourful and feisty, even a little controversial. But 39-year-old Sayeeda Hussain Warsi is, uniquely, Christian Britain's first Muslim cabinet minister. The youngest member of the House of Lords, she was, on the recommendation of now PM David Cameron, conferred the title of Baroness of Dewsbury in 2007.

Warsi has made a virtue of being a daughter of a Pakistani immigrant millworker. Warsi shot into British media limelight after she, among others, successfully secured the release of a British school teacher, Gillian Gibbons, in Sudan in 2007. The latter had been convicted and imprisoned for permitting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammed. Warsi is, arguably, a beneficiary of a drive by British political parties to woo Britons of Islamic faith, mostly of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin.

Last year, she was pelted with eggs by militant Muslims in Luton. They accused her of not being a proper Muslim and supporting the death of Muslims in Afghanistan. Warsi called them "idiots who do not represent the majority of British Muslims.'' Warsi will doubtlessly have to tread carefully. But if skilful, she has the potential of becoming a powerful voice for Muslims within the British cabinet as well as influential of matters concerning Pakistan, not to mention Kashmir.

- Asian Tribune -