Kerala’s Muslim community has been rattled by a different kind of bombshell, this time from within the community. The minority community’s largest educational body has issued a circular banning the practice of Muslim girls covering their face on the campuses of the society’s institutions.
The Muslim Educational Society, which runs a large number of schools along with medical and engineering colleges, professional institutions, hospitals, orphanages and cultural centres, has infuriated the overly conservative sections of the community, who straight away launched a fierce attack on MES president Dr P A Fasal Gafoor, who had signed the circular.
The circular, issued last month, asserted that the society insists on propriety in dressing by the students, along with other behaviour, in addition to educational excellence. In view of this, dressing styles that are repugnant to the society, whether in the name of modernity or alleged religious practices, cannot be tolerated on the campuses, it said.
The circular specifically banned girl students coming to colleges with their faces covered from the next academic year and declared that the dress code would be made a compulsory part of campus discipline. Fasal Gafoor is known for his forthright views, which are at variance with the mostly fundamentalist approach of the community leaders, wielding influence in religious, social and cultural affairs of the state’s Muslim population. They are not directly involved in politics, but have their say enforced through proxies.
He has been ploughing a lonely furrow in the management of medical colleges and other professional institutions by challenging the policies followed by managements of minority institutions that are far from altruistic. He has ensured that at least the institutions managed by MES are fair to the weaker sections of the society and has a track record of fighting with the rest of the managements in upholding the rights of students and parents.
His views on the ‘barricaded’ dress of Muslim women are also well-known. He had courted controversy by claiming that the ‘Naqab’, or veil, used by Muslim women to cover their faces, is “un-Islamic”. He insists that the trend of Muslim women wearing burqa and face cover is influenced by the fundamentalist approaches of the Arabian Gulf monarchies and as such a recent phenomenon in Kerala.
This kind of dress is least suited for Kerala’s climate, he has argued. In fact, he argues that it breeds dangerous bacteria, putting the health of women at great risk. Samastha, a conservative outfit that wields significant influence on the state’s Muslim communities, challenged Ghafoor’s right to issue such a circular, saying it impinged on long-standing religious practices, which it said are best left to religious organisations like theirs.
Samastha Kerala Jemiayathul Ulema said they will oppose the move. Similarly, Sunni Samastha president Muthukoya Thangal criticized the society saying, “The MES has no right to dictate terms for believers. Burqua is the identity of Muslim women and nobody can deny this,” Thangal said.
Controversies over dress codes in colleges and universities are not strange to Kerala. The government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram had attracted nation-wide attention over two years ago when it issued a dress code for girls prohibiting them from wearing jeans, leggings or ‘noisy ornaments’.
A photo of girls dressed in the traditional men’s casual wear ‘lungi’ that became viral on the social media had dramatised the protest over it. The photo was real, but the protest story attached to it later turned out to be fake. But Gafoor cites court rulings to claim that the bodies that run the institutions have absolute right to decide on the dress code to be followed by those institutions. He denies that the decision has anything to do with the Sri Lankan terror attack on the Easter day, but its timing is striking.
ISIS-backed terror outfits have been trying to penetrate the state’s educational institutions to breed and propagate their deadly ideologies and many institutions have in the past been found to be vulnerable. Kerala has been a happy hunting ground for terrorist outfits to recruit fighters for their cause in places like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of Kerala youth have sacrificed their lives in the killing fields of these terrorist destinations as they are enticed with the promise of heaven if they die defending their faith.
Alarmingly, many of those joining the business of terror are well-qualified professionals passing out of institutions of higher learning. In December last year, a group of students with alleged links with Islamist outfits, had reportedly hoisted flags of banned organisations on the campus of CH Muhammad Koya Memorial College, Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district. Television footage of the incident showed the students wearing terrorist costumes and carrying offensive placards glorifying Osama bin Laden.
Investigations have revealed some Kerala connections for those who carried out the dastardly Lankan attack and its mastermind. The National Investigation Agency is continuing its raids on residences in the northern part of Kerala as part of an international probe to flush out the affiliates of Zahran Hashim, the architect of the Lankan attacks that claimed hundreds of lives, and his National Towheeth Jamaat outfit.
A 29-year man nabbed by NIA has confessed to have been inspired by Zahran Hashim and had reportedly planned a terrorist attack on the News Year’s Day in Kerala and had targetted areas with large presence of foreigners. He is said to have claimed, however, that he could not get any support from his associates, who chickened out at the last minute. The man reportedly confessed that he was still at it, trying to assemble the necessary resources.
A new sense is dawning on the community, at least among its moderate sections, that it cannot turn a blind eye to whatever is happening to some of its youths. It is widely believed that the religious and cultural leaders of the community have failed their people in providing leadership and guidance to the youth going astray.
Although Gafoor’s move has not been linked to this particular problem, it is believed to show the frustration of people like him over the failure of the community in counselling its misguided youth, who are falling victim to the dark designs of the jihadists to create trouble in every possible corner of the earth.
Arjavi Indraneesh is freelance journalist. Views are personal.