Lucknow, India - With ulema calling the shots, life for Muslim women in a minority-dominated town in Bijnor, will never be the same again.
Simple and harmless pleasures like visiting friends, a trip to the market or tuning in to their favourite soap could be denied to them.
Local clerics have decided to impose a strict ban on "potential corrupting influence on female minds that threaten to violate Islamic tenets".
According to reports reaching here, pesh imams of 14 mosques in Barhapur-Nagina town and its adjacent areas held a meeting after Friday prayers on June 10 and issued directives to men to ensure that their wives and sisters behaved like honest-to-Allah women.
The gaglist includes a ban on womenfolk rom stepping out of their homes, no cinema, TV serials or exposure to modern music. This would ensure purity of minds, the diktat states.
According to reliable sources, the imams also set up monitoring committees to ensure strict compliance. A seven-member group will visit suspect homes and report any deviation.
However, considering a backlash from the liberal segment, the qazi from Chaar Siri Jama Masjid later relaxed conditions and held that women can step out of their homes if it was absolutely necessary. But, in that case care should be taken to cover the body in burqa.
And even as women in the conventional township grapple to come to terms with the diktat, men defend it tooth and nail. "What is so unusual about these instructions," asked a bewildered Farid Ahmad, chairman nagar palika, Bijnor. Talking to the TOI on Monday on the telephone Farid said that "the instructions should ideally be followed by every husband".
"These directives had nothing do with curtailing women’s liberty, he said.
Interestingly, as far as watching TV is concerned, Islam imposes same curbs on men, said Maulana Khalid Rashid from Firangi Mahal.
Rashid adds with some generosity "there is nothing wrong if women watched television programmes like Discovery Channel, news channels or sports."