Fatwa: Indian Muslims council: It’s illegal for women to work, earn

Fatwa: It’s illegal for women to work, earn

From the Times of India / May 12 2010


Lucknow: Darul Uloom Deoband, the self-appointed guardian for Indian Muslims, in a Talibanesque fatwa that reeks of tribal patriarchy, has decreed it is haram and illegal in Sharia for a family to accept a woman’s earnings. Clerics at the largest Sunni Muslim seminary after Cairo’s al-Azhar said the decree flowed from the fact that the Sharia prohibits proximity of men and women in the workplace.
“It is unlawful (under the Sharia law) for Muslim women to work in government/private sectors where men and women work together and women have to talk with men frankly and without a veil,’’ said the fatwa issued by a bench of three clerics. The decree became public late on Monday but was issued over the weekend, seminary sources said.
The fatwa, although unlikely to be heeded, is clearly detrimental. Even the most conservative Islamic countries, which restrict activities of women, including preventing them from driving, do not bar women from working. At the peak of its power, the Taliban only barred women in professions like medicine from treating men and vice-versa. But there was a never a blanket ban on working.