“No Men Left?”: Top Gujarat Cleric Slams Muslim Women In Elections

Ahmedabad:

Those who choose Muslim ladies to run for workplace are towards Islam and are weakening the faith, the chief cleric of the Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad mentioned on Sunday, in a stunningly misogynistic remark, a day earlier than the second section of voting for the Gujarat elections.

“If you talk about Islam, see there’s nothing more important in this religion than namaz. Did you see any women here reading the namaz? If it were okay for women in Islam to come in front of everyone, they wouldn’t have been stopped from doing so,” Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui advised information company ANI.

“They are stopped from coming to mosques to read the namaz because women have a particular position in Islam. That’s why, those who give election tickets to Muslim women, are rebelling against Islam,” the Shahi Imam mentioned.

“Are there no men left that you are bringing in women? This weakens our religion. Weakens how? If you make your women MLAs and councillors, we won’t be able to defend the hijab,” he mentioned, referencing the controversy in Karnataka over the scarf worn by some Muslim ladies.

#WATCH | Those who give election tickets to Muslim ladies are towards Islam, weakening the faith. Are there no males left?: Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad#Gujaratpic.twitter.com/5RpYLG7gqW

— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2022

Entirely unaware of the gross sexism in his statements, he continued, grinning and in search of validation, “To fight elections, one must meet people door-to-door, both Hindus and Muslims… Therefore, I am staunchly against it. You can give election tickets to men.”

“The reason they are giving tickets to women is that these days women have a greater say in things. So if you take women in, the entire family will come in too. I can see no other reason than this,” Mr Siddiqui mentioned.

The cleric’s fundamentalist rant comes a day earlier than voting in 93 constituencies in Gujarat, the second section of a intently watched state election which sees the ruling BJP, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress in a three-way battle.

Muslims make up for round 10 per cent of the state’s round 6.four crore folks, however Muslim ladies have subsequent to zero illustration within the legislature – a statistic mirrored on the nationwide stage as properly.