Opinion Tearing through prejudice

The exchange that was posted on the website was as follows:

Question: Asalam Aleikum. Can Muslim women in India do government or private jobs? Shall their salary be “halal” or “haram”?

Answer: It is unlawful for Muslim women to do a job in the government or private sector,where men and women work together and women have to talk to men frankly and without a veil. (But) Allah knows best.

This is the beginning,end and sum total of the answer. There is no answer to the question of salary being halal or haram. In fact the clergyman is silent on this but the reporters are not. The attempt here is nothing but to create a sensation. The fact is that the fatwa ends with Allah knows best. This,I feel,is a disclaimer,meaning,“This is my opinion. You decide for yourself because Allah knows best.” Later Darul Uloom issued a statement denying the fatwa and asserting that they had only given an opinion,but the damage was done. Stereotypes were reaffirmed in the minds of many unthinking readers.

The fatwa itself is problematic. Its pronouncement that women should be “properly covered” at the workplace is indefensible. For many of us,it violates Muslim women’s rights to bodily integrity,privacy,freedom of choice. It is much like the ban on veiling in other jurisdictions. For many of us,it is equally coercive and violative of the rights of Muslim women.

I have read and understood Islam from the injunctions of the Quran and the writings of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali and Maulana Abul Kamal Azad. In that light,this fatwa contravenes the deeply gendered spirit of Islam as do many other fatwas uploaded on the Darul Uloom website. I can engage with the scholars of Darul Uloom,refute their views and prove the point by quoting my rich cultural history,examples from the life of the Prophet,from his wife Hazrat Khatija,his daughter Hazrat Fatima,his grand daughters Zainab and Kulsum. But I will do it in my own time. I will not enter a debate with Deoband on women’s rights because of misrepresented reports.

The point about many media reports is that they assume that Islam (and other Semitic religions) are tied to the text,hence more regimented. They attribute the liberals’ attraction to Sufism to its eclecticism and non-textual nature. They regard Islam as a monolith and make simplistic and dangerous deductions. By calling Darul Uloom the “self appointed guardian for Indian Muslims”,they demolish,in one stroke,the different schools in Islam — Sunnis,Shias,Deobandis,Barelvis. The beauty of Islam is that it allows a thousand flowers to bloom. It allows human beings to understand and practice Islam by their own light. The Quranic injunction is that Allah is closer to you than your shehrug (jugular vein). Ponder the meaning for a moment.

For most of us perfunctory readers,a report such as this escapes scrutiny as we fly with the headlines. It gives grist to the mill of Muslim bashers. The fact is that Muslim women,despite the declaration that it is “unlawful” for them to work with men,will continue to go to work. Muslim men,those that need to,will still live off their earnings. Allah knows best!

The writer is a member of the Planning Commission of India