Muslim women should not be allowed to watch men with ‘bare knees’ playing football, says Islamic cleric

Muslim women should not be allowed to watch men with ‘bare knees’ playing football, says Islamic cleric

A senior cleric at an influential Islamic seminary issued a religious decree saying that Muslim women should not watch men playing football.

Mufti Athar Kasmi said that watching men “playing with bare knees” violated the tenets of Islam and was forbidden for women. Kasmi is a cleric at Darul Uloom.

The cleric also lashed out at men who allow their wives to watch football, even on television.

Do you have no shame? Do you not fear God? You let her watch these kinds of things,” he said.

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“Why do women need to watch these football matches? What they will gain by looking at footballer’s thighs? Their attention will be on that only and they will even miss the scores,” Kasmi said.

About 13 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people are Muslim.

On Tuesday a Muslim women’s rights activist in the northern city of Lucknow decried the decree.

“It implies that Muslim women should not watch any athletic event, tennis matches or swimming championships. How it can be immoral for a woman to watch men playing sport?” Sahira Nasih said.

The seminary recently issued a fatwa, or religious decree, asking Muslim women not to visit beauty salons or wear tight clothing.