NEW DELHI: A prominent Muslim clerics body today implied that women are lesser than men because men can't bear children."If you want equality why don't men and women carry pregnancy for 4.5 months each?" asked the (male) secretary of the Jamiat Ulama.He was speaking in the context of a government proposal to "allow" women over the age of 45 to go on the Haj pilgrimage without a male member, if they travel in groups of four. This was a suggestion in a proposed Haj policy drafted by a committee appointed by the Centre.The draft was submitted to Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi two days ago. Since then, a fusillade of protests has erupted from Muslim clerics of all stripes.Sunni Barelvi clerics criticised the move, calling it "un-Islamic". They said that the motive of the authorities was to "make women work against Sharia (Islamic law)".A spokesperson of Dargah Aala Hazrat said it is a "sin" for women to go to Haj without a male relative."It is mandatory for women to be accompanied by the husband or any other male blood relation. If women go alone on Haj, they will end up committing a sin, which is the motive of the authorities. As Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam, it should be done according to Sharia and women cannot go without mehram (close male blood relation)," said Mufti Mohammed Salim Noori of the Dargah Aala Hazrat.Another cleric said Muslim women should follow Islamic rules not laws laid down by politicians. And yet another cleric said he would write to minister Naqvi."We will write to Naqvi and ask him not to give permission to women to go on Haj alone," said Shahbudin Razvi of the Jamat Raza-e-Mustafa