On the 15th of April, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court (SC) by a couple from Pune, to allow Muslim women to enter all the mosques and not just certain ones.
The petition was filed by Yasmin Zuber Ahmed Peerzade and her husband, Zuber Ahmad Nazir Ahmad Peerzade. In the petition, the couple said, there was nothing in the Quran and the Hadith, which require gender segregation.
“There are diverging opinions among experts in Islamic theology concerning gender segregation. On one side of the spectrum, an Islamic theologian in Canada, Ahmad Kutty, has said segregation of the sexes is not a requirement in Islam, as men and women interacted in Muhammad’s time without any partitions. On the other side of the spectrum, an Islamic theologian in Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, has issued a death warrant in the form of a fatwa against those who allow the mixing of the sexes. The Prophet Muhammad specifically admonished the men not to keep their wives from going to the mosques…,” the petition said.
Furthermore, the petition also said “the act of prohibition of females from entering Mosque is void and unconstitutional as such practices are not only repugnant to the basic dignity of a woman as an individual but also violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.”
The petition was filed on behalf of all the women who face the same issue, but don’t have the means to move the Supreme Court regarding this matter. According to the couple filing the petition, there is discrimination against Muslim women and the SC is allowing this to happen without respecting the basic dignity of women.
In their petition, the couple used the Sabarimala case as a benchmark and said, if the SC could allow women to enter the temple, they can just as easily pass a ruling on this case as well. Arguing the fact that women are allowed to enter all the mosques in places like Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt, the U.S., the U.K. and Singapore, the couple thinks women should be allowed to enter all the mosques in India as well.
The SC is all set to take a call on this plea on the 16th of April.
Stay tuned for more updates on this case.
