Empowerment is not negotiable: Rajeev Chandrasekhar on women’s rights

Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar opposed a directive by a prominent Sunni scholars’ body urging restrictions on women’s participation in public religious events. CPI(M) leaders criticised the directive as anti-women, while some Islamic scholars defended it. IUML said it would not intervene

Thiruvananthapuram: Keralam BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said women in the state have the constitutional right to learn, celebrate and live with freedom and dignity, and opposed any attempt to impose clerics’ diktats on them.

In a post on ‘X’, Chandrasekhar said the BJP and NDA would not permit any move to push women back into “medieval seclusion”, a day after a prominent Islamic scholars’ body in the state urged organisers of religious events not to bring women into public spaces or place them among unrelated men.

---

Though he did not refer to any particular incident or religion, Chandrasekhar said those seeking to confine women to the shadows belonged to the past and had no place in Viksit Bharat or in India’s democracy.

“Every young girl in Keralam has the constitutional right to learn, celebrate, lead, dream, and live with total freedom and dignity without clerical (clerics) diktats or political compromise,” he said.
Chandrasekhar said India had moved from women’s empowerment to women-led development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with young women driving the country forward in the armed forces, space missions, boardrooms and start-ups.

“Our daughters in Keralam will not be denied those exact same opportunities,” the former union minister said. He also accused the Congress and CPI(M) of decades of “extreme appeasement”, which he claimed had emboldened “regressive forces” seeking to push women back into medieval seclusion.

“When it comes to turning a blind eye to those who oppose women’s empowerment, the Congress and CPI(M) are the same. Randalla, Onnanu! (They are not two, they are one). BJP/NDA will not permit it,” he said.

“Empowerment is not negotiable” and meant freedom, equal opportunity and total visibility in public life, he added. On Friday, the Kanthapuram faction of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the premier council of Sunni-Shafi Islamic scholars in the state, issued a directive saying religious celebrations and programmes should not cross prescribed boundaries.

Samastha president E Sulaiman Musliyar and general secretary Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar had urged believers to take seriously instances of Islamic celebrations and ceremonies being conducted in violation of religious boundaries.

The leaders specifically said “displaying” young women among unrelated men on public roads and stages, and incorporating non-Islamic customs and forms of celebration into such programmes, were not appropriate for believers and were not permissible.

They also urged Mahallu office-bearers and the leadership of mosques, madrassas and other institutions and organisations to remain vigilant and ensure that such programmes were conducted strictly in accordance with Islamic norms.

Programmes organised at the Mahallu level and elsewhere should preserve religious values and discipline, they said, adding that everyone had a responsibility to pass on morally upright examples to coming generations.

The scholars’ body’s directive has been triggering sharp reactions from various quarters and on social media platforms since Friday. Senior CPI (M) leader and former Health Minister K K Shailaja on Saturday termed the statement that women should not be displayed in public places or on stages as “outdated” and “highly anti-women”.

In a Facebook post, Shailaja said Muslim women in Kerala today are well educated and have established themselves in various fields, including as MLAs, municipal chairpersons, panchayat presidents and other elected representatives.

She pointed out that Muslim women also work as judges, lawyers, doctors, teachers, technocrats and workers. “There is no religious violation in women gathering in public places, sharing a stage at meetings or having food together,” she said.

Keeping women confined to their homes was a “feudal practice”, Shailaja said in the FB post, adding that it was inappropriate for an organisation like Samastha, which runs several educational and social service institutions, to express such a view. Another senior CPI(M) leader P K Sreemathi strongly condemned the directive asking women not to be brought into public spaces and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

However, Islamic scholars, including Sunni Yuvajana Sangam (SYS) leader Musthafa Mundupara and Nasar Faizy Koodathayi on Saturday came out in support of the directive. Mundupara, in a Facebook post, said there was no reason to criticise those asking Muslim women and the faithful community to remain vigilant about matters concerning their fundamental religious beliefs.
“Islam has prescribed certain conditions and disciplines for the life of a practising Muslim,” he said.

Scholars and organisational leadership periodically remind the community about such matters, Mundupara said. “Scholars will continue to say it, whether people like it or not. It is their responsibility. Be it a Milad rally or Onam celebrations,” he said.

Koodathayi, in a Facebook post, said Islamic scholar Kanthapuram could give his religious ruling on how those women, who accepted his views, should conduct themselves in public spaces. “Those who accept him can follow what he says, while those who do not can reject it,” he said. Religious scholars who have studied Islam have a responsibility to explain religious rulings and continue communicating them to the faithful, he added.

However, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a key partner in the ruling UDF, sought to distance itself from the controversy When reporters sought the party’s reaction, IUML state general secretary P M A Salam said in Malappuram that the party did not want to get involved in the “differences of opinion among religious organisations.” “The League has no specific opinion on the view expressed by the scholars. The party is neither going to reject nor justify it. Religious organisations may have their own views, while the IUML has its own political position,” Salam said.