Women Should Not Go to Dargahs as the Dead Can See Women Naked, Says a Nizamuddin Dargah Maulvi

After Shani Shingnapur and Sabarimala, the Haji Ali and Nizamuddin Dargah are now at the eye of the storm for their limited access to women in the inner sanctum or shrine.

For years, the Nizamuddin Dargah has only allowed women till a certain point and denied them access to the shrine. As a consolation, the dargah allows women to pray and worship a wall behind the grave of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

To add insult to injury, when ThePrint asked one of the managers of the dargah, Syed Kalim Nizami, for a substantial reason, he said, “Asking ‘why’ for everything creates controversy. In this day and age of digital media, everyone wants to rake up controversy. What did those women who entered the Shani Shingnapur temple achieve except being in the news for a few days?”

On probing further, Nizami added that the tradition should be preserved as it has been going on for 700 years. He also stated that women shouldn't go to dargahs and graveyards as women can be seen naked by the dead if they're too close to their graves.

When it comes to religion, logic has never been a strong point. But this is far-fetched even by religious standards. Deeply reflective of how religion can never harbour sound reasoning, this absurd statement is just a drop in the ocean of the ridiculous things divine middlemen have spewed on us unsuspecting souls.

As a retort to this hogwash, Alhaj Syed Nayeemuddin Niazi, a Khadim at the gender inclusive Ajmer Sharif Dargah said, “Throughout their lifetimes, they (Sufi saints) used to interact with women and heal them. Why can they not do so after death?” Coming from a manager of another prominent religious shrine, it is quite clear that the rules aren't set in stone and are completely arbitrary.

While the go-to argument still remains that these were rules followed for hundreds of years, it is laughable that there's nothing more in their kitty of reasons. Well, it's 2016, and it's high time we get a definitive reason based in logic and science. We've evolved far beyond the realms of mythology and superstition, and the only thing that's holding us back is people like Nizami who have a weird separation anxiety with the past.