Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, the Shahi Imam of the Ahmedabad Jama Masjid.
Ahmedabad:
Those who select Muslim women for office are anti-Islam and weakening the religion, the chief cleric of Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad said in a startlingly misogynist comment on Sunday, a day ahead of the second phase of voting for Gujarat’s elections.
“When you talk about Islam, you see that there is nothing more important in this religion than namaz. Have you seen women reading the Namaz here? If it were okay for women in Islam to come out in front of everyone, they wouldn’t have been stopped from doing so,” Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui told ANI.
“They are prevented from coming to the mosques to read the namaz because women have a special place in Islam. That is why those who give voting cards to Muslim women are rebelling against Islam,” the Shahi Imam said.
“Are there no more men who take you to women? That weakens our religion. weakens how? over the headscarf of some Muslim women.
#CLOCK | Those who give voting cards to Muslim women are against Islam and weaken the religion. Are there no more men?: Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad#Gujaratpic.twitter.com/5RpYLG7gqW
— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2022
Completely unaware of the gross sexism in his remarks, he continued, grinning and looking for validation: “To fight elections you have to meet people door to door, both Hindu and Muslim… So I’m strongly against it. You can give voting cards to men.”
“The reason they give women tickets is because women have a bigger say these days. So if you take women, the whole family will come with you. I see no other reason than that,” said Mr. Siddiqui.
The cleric’s fundamentalist tirade comes a day before the vote in 93 constituencies in Gujarat, the second phase of a closely watched state election that has seen the ruling BJP, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress locked in a three-way battle.
Muslims make up about 10 percent of the state’s approximately 6.4 million people, but Muslim women have almost zero representation in the legislature – a statistic that is also reflected at the national level.
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