Lucknow, India - One of South Asia's most influential Islamic seminaries said Thursday that Muslim women who run for political office should wear a veil on the campaign trail - widening the debate about the role of religious law in secular India.
The latest ruling from the Dar-ul-Uloom school follows a decision by India's Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the legality of Muslim religious courts, which are constitutionally permitted in India to rule on personal matters for Muslims, such as marriage and divorce.
Maulana Shahid Rehan, a scholar at the school, told The Associated Press on Thursday that "Islam never forbids women from doing social service, but her conduct should be in accordance with Shariah," or Islamic law.
"Shariah says women should not go in public without veil and a Muslim should follow this," he said.
Dar-ul-Uloom in Deoband, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital, New Delhi, issued its fatwa, or order, on Tuesday as millions of Indians throughout Uttar Pradesh state, where the school is located, voted in local elections.
Voting ends next week, and the Press Trust of India reported Thursday that hundreds of female candidates running in the elections had donned veils as they went from village to village campaigning for votes.
One of the women, Anwari Begum, reportedly told PTI she had covered up after Dar-ul-Uloom issued its ruling.
Leading Islamic seminaries, like Dar-ul-Uloom, a bastion of conservative Islam, often interpret Shariah for the various Muslim tribunals that function in the country.
However, it was not clear how much power the school or the courts have to regulate the role of Muslim women in public life in India, a secular democracy.
PTI reported Thursday that Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj said such edicts had no legal standing.
Muslims moderates also dismissed Dar-ul-Uloom's latest ruling, saying the scholars should stick to religious matters and not address political or social concerns.
"The Muslim clergy should understand their responsibility before issuing a fatwa," said an official at the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Khalid Rashid. "If (the school) continues issuing fatwas like this, it will undermine its own importance."
The ruling follows a far more controversial decision in June by a Muslim village in northern India, which used its power over marriage to rule that an alleged rape victim move in with her father-in-law - the man accused of attacking her. She was also ordered to treat her husband as her son, effectively becoming her father-in-law's wife.
The school backed up the council by declaring that the woman could no longer live with her husband, although it did not order her to move in with the father-in-law.
The woman refused to abide by either decision, and her father-in-law was arrested by police after human rights groups protested the ruling. She later moved in with her brother in a town north of New Delhi.
The woman's case has pitted conservative Muslims against moderate Muslims, Hindu nationalists and women's' groups in India, where Muslims account for about 130 million of the country's 1 billion people.
An Indian lawyer is also using the case as grounds for a lawsuit challenging the legality of Islamic courts. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, although no date has been set.