Two Muslim women from Rajasthan — Afroz Begum and Jahan Ara — were awarded the certificate of “Qaziat” by an Islamic training Centre in Mumbai, amid protests from conservative Muslim clerics. Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband however, voiced their support. In Islamic legal jurisprudence, they now have the authority to function as the head of informal arbitration centres to sort out disputes related to personal laws as well as other matters. This video was originally posted last month after intense debate over the ban on the entry of women at various places of worship including the Haji Ali shrine in Mumbai and the Shani Temple in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar.
Muslim women, on Thursday, staged a protest demanding entry into a restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai, a stir that came amid a campaign by a group seeking right for female devotees to offer prayers at inner sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra.
Several activists belonging to Muslim women groups held placards demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of the historic dargah, which receives hundreds of devotees every day.
A participant said it was “male patriarchy”, and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women. “This is against tenets of Islam. The Constitution has given women equal rights, Islam supports the Constitution,” she added.
A Muslim women’s rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah, which has barred women’s entry into mosque’s mausoleum.
The Bombay High Court is hearing a petition challenging the Haji Ali Trust’s decision to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the dargah.
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