Society president Fazal Gafoor says purdah, hijab, and niqab are part of Arabian cultural invasion and not part of Islam

The Muslim Education Society’s (MES) decision not to allow women students wearing face-covering garments in its colleges and schools has stirred up a ferocious debate in the State with a key Sunni religious association opposing the ban and a wave of support for the curbs being offered on social media.

The debate is framed around the Sri Lankan government’s recent ban on face veiling, though P.A. Fazal Gafoor, president of the MES, points out that his circular to the colleges and schools run by the MES was issued several days before the Colombo curbs. “My message to the heads of our educational institutions has got nothing to do with the Sri Lankan issue,” Dr. Gafoor told The Hindu.

High Court order

Dr. Gafoor in an April 17 circular sent out to the heads of the 100-odd institutions run by the MES asked them to see that students did not wear the face-covering attire. He quoted a December 4, 2018 Kerala High Court ruling that dismissed a writ petition by a Muslim schoolgirl filed against a Christian school’s decision that disallowed her from wearing a headscarf.

‘Anti-women’

“The MES stands for the empowerment of women through education, employment and public life,” Dr. Gafoor said. “We believe that the practice of face veiling, which is a recent phenomenon in Kerala, is anti-woman.” He claimed it had got nothing to do with Islam.

He noted that the purdah (full-body veil), the hijab (head-covering scarf, usually black, which also masks a part of the face) and the niqab (which fully covers the face, barring the eyes) were unheard of in Kerala until about a quarter century ago.

“These garments are not part of the Kerala Muslims’ cultural practices. These Arabian garments are being imposed on the community in the name of religious practices. In fact, they are part of the Arabian cultural invasion and not part of Islam.” These foreign attire often alienated Muslim women in the mainstream society, he noted.

‘Face cover needed’

However, several orthodox Muslim organisations have taken objection to the MES stand.

The Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulema, an association of Sunni religious scholars, which usually holds conservative views on women’s role in society, has said Muslim women should indeed wear the face cover when men are around. Sayyid Jiffry Muthukoya Thangal, president of the Samastha, told the media in Kozhikode on Thursday that Dr. Gafoor had no right to give religious directives.

“His directive is not applicable to the Muslim community,” the Thangal told The Hindu on the phone. “It is okay for him to give such instructions to students in the institutions run by him, but not to the community as a whole.”

‘Rights violation’

The Samastha Kerala Sunni Yuvajana Sanghom (SYS), an organisation owing allegiance to Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, in a statement said the MES directive violated the fundamental right of the individual. It was against the Constitution-guaranteed right to choose one’s attire, the SYS claimed.

Meanwhile, social media are rife with criticism of the hijab and purdah. For instance, a commentator, V.P. Rejeena, noted that even in the Arab world, women had begun to openly revolt against the face veil as they had realised that it kept them trapped.

She said the veil was a symbol of viewing the woman’s body only as a sex object. She alleged that male chauvinistic priests and theologians, using bogus religious scriptures, had imposed the hijab on the women.