Fatwa against women from travelling alone.

9 March 2011. The edict came in response to a query to Darul-Ifta (Deoband's fatwa department) "whether a married woman was permitted to travel to another country with her female sibling". The response ( 511/308/d) posted on the Deoband website on March 2 categorically maintained that "she cannot travel without a `mehram'. It is mentioned in the `Hadees' that a woman should not travel for more than 48 miles except in the company of a mehram relative".

"Don't modern educated women need protection," Siddiqi asked. They must not travel alone even with relatives apart from father husband or the meharam. This is to ensure their own safety during the journey, Deoband's spokesperson Adil Siddiqui said .

The bid to impose 1,400 years old restrictions, when people travelled in kafila, is simply ridiculous, says Naeesh Hasan, the founder president of AMMA "specially in an era when a woman pilot can take a planeload of men across 14,000 miles without her father or husband lurking in the cockpit".

This is yet another attempt to subjugate women, said president of All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, Shaista Ambar. A woman cannot be expected to be tied to her husband or father forever. What do maulvis have to say about long distance relationship, she asked and said such rulings only bring disrepute to clerics. 

Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has issued an edict saying that Muslim women should not become judges as it is forbidden in the religion.

The seminary posted the fatwa on its website after a question was posed to it on the issue.
The edict which said that women should not become judges has drawn sharp reaction from various quarters.

"Somebody's qualification should be judged by education and upbringing and not by gender. This is bias," said advocate and women activist Mumtaaz Akhtar.

Contending that the welfare of the community should be kept in mind before issuing such decrees, she said, "A woman understands the plight of another woman better. These types of diktats only dishonour the work done by several Muslim women in the field of judiciary."

In 1989, the country saw M Fathima Beevi from Kerala becoming the first Muslim woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Then in 2006, Seema Ali Khan was made a permanent judge of the Patna High Court.

According to Supreme Court advocate Kamlesh Jain, such fatwas affect the mindset of people and pose hurdles for Muslim women who want to opt for this profession.

"There are only 10-15 per cent women who are working in different departments of judiciary and they are performing extremely well. A woman advocate or judge is preferred in cases related to women issues but there are not enough women in the field," Jain said.

Rukhsana Zabeen, who works with Radio Kashmir in Srinagar as an assistant station director, says it is difficult to accept that women should not become judges.

Exactly three years ago, on May 22, 2007, an Egyptian scholar was disciplined by Al Azhar University, one of Islam's most prestigious institutions, after he issued a fatwa calling upon women to breastfeed their male colleagues. Dr. Izzat Attiyah said that his fatwa offered a way around mixing of the sexes in the work place since breast-feeding established a maternal relation even if the beneficiary was not the woman's biological son or daughter.

Now, a high-ranking Saudi, Sheikh Abdul Mohsin al-Abaican, a consultant at Saudi Arabia's royal court, has issued a fatwa asserting that

women could give their milk to men to establish a degree of maternal relations and get around a strict religious ban on mixing between unrelated men and women. [Because] a man who often entered a house and came in contact with the womenfolk there should be made symbolically related to the women by drinking milk from one of the women. Under the fatwa, the act would preclude any sexual relations between the man and the donor woman and her relatives.

The breast milk fatwa, which came from Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obeikan, an advisor to the royal court, was an entirely novel interpretation of an ancient story in Islamic tradition and of an old custom in which Muslim women breastfeed an infant so the child becomes the equivalent of her own. The fatwa was met with outrage from all quarters in the kingdom and sparked ridicule of Islam by non-Muslim commentators. But weird fatwas like these are not the only ones causing controversy in the kingdom. Rulings that please progressive Muslims often draw fire from conservatives. That was the case, for example, with Sheikh Ahmed Al- Ghamdi’s ruling in December that Islam allows men and women to mingle in public places like universities. And more recently, conservatives were upset by Riyadh scholar Adel Al-Kalbani’s finding that singing is permissible as long as lyrics are decent. Al-Kalbani later reversed himself, telling Al-Hayat newspaper he had been wrong. 

1. Make sure you dress appropriately
It is a sad fact that many local guys view Western women as promiscuous. This impression is largely due to how tourists dress.

The simple fact is that if you dress appropriately and cover up you will invite far less attention than you would otherwise.

If you are heading to a conservative Muslim nation then cover your shoulders and even your head.

2. Make sure you hook up with a male or another female traveler
If you are heading somewhere alone where there is an increased chance of harassment then try and hang out with other travelers. This again will greatly reduce any hassle you might get.

Check out our section on meeting other travelers for more ideas.

3. Wearing a ring on your wedding finger
This might seem a bit extreme but it can really work in your favour at times.

4. Change your behaviour for the situation
If you are acting drunk and a bit wild you are bound to create the sort of interest you are trying to avoid. This is the case in any country in the world. It will only add to the local's theory that women who behave like this are loose!

Try and avoid eye contact particularly when you are alone and feel vulnerable. Making eye contact may give many men the green light. Check out what local women do when they are getting attention from strange men. They will often look down and this is usually enough to get your point across.

5. Finally...

Do enjoy yourself and try and make an effort with the locals. Chose situations like cafes to make conversation and be friendly. Being wary of men coming up to you is sensible but don't let it entirely put you off making contact with anyone.

Be safe and try and hook up with people as you go along.

6. Reading resources for women traveling on their own

If women move forward in unison, no force in the world would have the audacity or power to get in their way, speakers told a discussion yesterday.

While women are mothers, sisters, friends or co-workers to everyone, they are human beings above everything else. And they should be treated and respected as human beings and equal members of the society, they said.

The opinions came from the second national conference of Trinamul Nari Uddokta Society held at Chhayanat Sanskriti Bhaban coinciding with the International Women's Day 2011.

The speakers demanded recognition to the house aides saying that 90 percent countries are yet to recognise housemaids as workers despite their contribution to the national economy.

Workers' Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon, ActionAid Country Director Farah Kabir, veteran media personality and an adviser to Ekushey Televsion Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, and representatives from women's rights organisations from India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong, among others, spoke at the programme.

Many socio-cultural, human rights and other organisations also took a host of programmes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day with demands of equal rights, end to violence against women, and stop to religious edicts.

Directorate General of Women Affairs organised a discussion titled "Women development and empowerment" on the directorate general premises at city's Baily road to mark the day.

Director General of the directorate, Mohammad Ashraf Hossain, said for increased female participation in decision-making, the country needs a robust legal infrastructure and skill development programmes for women.