The ongoing protests in Delhi Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have been unprecedented in various levels.

For one, this is probably for the first time the Muslim women have been at the forefront of such a massive movement and their peaceful protests have been widely appreciated. They also inspired thousands of Muslim women from other parts of the country to organize similar protests against the CAA.

AFP

But now a top Muslim cleric from Kerala has come out criticizing the women protesters. Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, the head of the largest Sunni Muslim group in Kerala has said that women must not hit the roads to protest or raise slogans.



Speaking to a Malayalam news channel, Kanthapuram, as he is popularly known, said “Our view is that women must not hit the streets, unlike men. They must not clench their fists or raise slogans. However, when a situation arises where the support of women has to be declared, then their backing has to be proved, that’s all. Otherwise, they don’t need to hit the streets for protests.”

BCCL

88-year-old Kanthapuram was last year appointed as India’s Grand Mufti, the senior-most Islamic cleric in a country. As expected, Kanthapuram's comments have not gone down well with a large section of the community, including women who said that such dicta will only help to scuttle the voice of the community.

Kanthapuram is not the first Islamic cleric from Kerala to ask Muslim women not to indulge in 'Unisalmic' protests. Last week another cleric Abdul Hameed Faizy had stocked controversy after he said that Muslim women should refrain from street protests that will expose their bodies to men other than their husbands.

BCCL

In a Facebook post, Faizy said he was shocked to see the visuals of Muslim women mingling with 'other men' during the protests against CAA. "There were women in the front row of the protests. How condemnable is that? This is a dangerous culture," Faizy said in an utterly misogynist and regressive Facebook post.



Despite the criticism, he received Faizy is still defending his comments and claimed that his suggestions were based on Quranic verse.

AFP

Before that, in December the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the largest Muslim body of scholars in Kerala, has urged the Muslim women protesters “not to cross the limits” during protests. A joint statement of scholars which was issued on Saturday night said the participation of Muslim women in public protests and ‘crossing limits’ which may lead to arrests is against Islam.

