In an incident which raised more than a few eyebrows, the Islamic school Darul Uloom Deoband, in UP’s Saharanpur district, has issued a fatwa, forbidding Muslim women from plucking, trimming, or shaping their eyebrows, reported Outlook magazine. The fatwa has also banned Muslim women from cutting their hair.
These beauty regimens have been deemed as un-Islamic by the Darul Iftaa, which issues the Islamic school’s mandates.
This bizarre mandate comes in response to a Saharanpur-based Muslim man’s equally bizarre query:
Do Islamic laws allow my wife to go for eyebrow-plucking and haircut?
The fatwa stated in Urdu, as reported by DNA:
If a Muslim woman is involved in such acts, she is violating Islamic laws.
The report also quotes Darul Iftaa Maulana L Sadiq Qasmi as saying:
Muslim women should stay away from beauty parlours as Islam does not permit them to wear make-up attracting other male members.
The Darul Iftaa also added, “The trend of Muslim women going to beauty parlours has increased in the country. It is not a good sign and it should be stopped immediately. We should have issued a fatwa in this regard long ago.”
Women’s rights activist Mariya Alam decried the regressive move by the Darul Uloom, which has issued similar fatwas in the past, and told Outlook, “Darul Uloom is also becoming a part of the world's conspiracy against Muslims, where they are portrayed as extremists, terrorists, and are believed to torture women.”
Alam believes, as reported by the magazine, that Islam seeks to empower women, and not control them by means of such restrictions.
(With inputs from Outlook, DNA)
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