THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Wednesday strongly condemned the incident in which EK Samastha leader MT Abdulla Musliyar rebuked organisers of an event who presented an award to a tenth standard girl on a public stage.
“Sad to know that a young girl was humiliated on stage in Malappuram while receiving a well-deserved award simply because she was born into a Muslim family. This is yet another example of how Muslim clerics continue to push hard Muslim women into seclusion and suppress their personality in total defiance of Quranic commands and provisions of the Constitution,” Khan tweeted on Wednesday.
The twitter thread continues to say: “Holy Qur’an says - “And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them according to what is fair and reasonable, but men have an added degree of Responsibility towards them - 2.228”.
The video of the event in which Muslim League Malappuram district president Abbas Ali Thangal was seen distributing prizes has gone viral on social media with thousands of users spread across platforms condemning the rigid patriarchal mindset of the orthodox cleric. In the video, Abdulla Musliyar is seen scolding the people who shared the stage with him for inviting the student. She was presented an educational award.
The venue was the inaugural ceremony of a new building of Darul Ulum Madrasa at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram. He told the organisers that girls should not be invited to the dais and instead their parents can be invited to the stage on their behalf. The video invited wide criticism from social media users.
Women’s Commission chairperson P Sathidevi and former national vice-president of Muslim Students Federation Fathima Thahiliya were among the few who spoke earlier against the harassment meted out to the girl. Several Muslim professionals took up to social media to challenge Abdulla Musliyar’s stand.
Accounts of how men misinterpret religion to silence women in the family were also shared on social media by several users.