KOZHIKODE: Not content with the government’s backtracking on the gender-neutral uniform issue, Muslim organisations are preparing for another round of showdown — this time over the handbook for Kudumbashree facilitators. Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulema president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal has hinted that the handbook will be the new bone of contention.
“The handbook titled ‘Healthy Relationships’ is more dangerous than the curriculum framework. It contains many atrocious references against religions and directly promotes immorality,” said Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS) leader Nazar Faizi Koodathayi.
What infuriated the Sunnis more is the discussion in the handbook that the sect prevents women from offering prayers in mosques. It also says that women are not represented in the committees that control the places of worship and prevents their entry during menstruation. It also refers to the practice of keeping women away from funeral rites and from performing religious rituals.
“While the curriculum framework is the subtle way of implementing the agenda of liberalism, the handbook is an open attack on our value system. We want the government to immediately withdraw the document,” Koodathayi said.
The crux of the document issued in 2021 is the idea that sex is a biological category but gender is a social construct, which may change from time to time. Family, marital life, education, religion and media are the main factors that decide how a woman must behave in society, it says. The handbook asks the facilitators to organise group meetings and role play sessions at panchayat-level to drive home the point that how these factors create the stereotype of feminine qualities. The facilitators can ask the group members as to what are the qualities that come to their minds when they hear the words ‘woman’ and ‘man.’ The members are then asked whether these qualities, other than delivery and breast-feeding, are interchangeable. Then the question ‘why certain things are confined to women and others reserved for men’ is asked.
The handbook also argues that there should be a free discussion among boys and girls on menstruation and male and female sexual organs. It argues that sex is not merely for procreation but it also enhances the bond between partners. Asserting that homosexuality is not a crime, it says more than 450 species of animals indulge in the act. The document also argues that masturbation is not a bad thing. “It is not correct to say that a woman’s actions and thoughts should be as directed by a man only because she is married,” the document added, saying that marriage is a contract between two individuals.
NOT WATERED DOWN, BUT BROADENED, SAYS SCERT
T’Puram: The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), which oversees the curriculum revision process, has come out with a clarification in the wake of reports that it had backtracked from its initial proposal of a gender-neutral seating plan in schools. In a note prepared for public discussion in the run-up to the school curriculum revision, the words ‘seating plan’ was reportedly replaced with ‘school environment’. SCERT director R K Jayaprakash told TNIE that the concept was not watered down but its scope was further broadened.
“Initially, a discussion in the context of ‘classrooms’ was proposed. It was the curriculum committee which suggested the term ‘school spaces’ to broaden its scope to include the entire campus, including playgrounds that are usually out of bounds for girl students,” Jayaprakash said. He added that numerous rounds of discussions with various stakeholders will be carried out and the discussion notes subjected to several rounds of revision before arriving at the draft curriculum framework.