A Muslim cleric at an influential Islamic seminary in northern India has made a decree saying Muslim women should not watch men playing soccer. Mufti
A Muslim cleric at an influential Islamic seminary in northern India has made a decree saying Muslim women should not watch men playing soccer. Mufti Athar Kasmi said that watching men playing with bare knees violated the tenets of Islam and was forbidden for women. Kasmi is cleric at Darul Uloom, Asia’s largest Sunni Muslim seminary in the northern town of Deoband.
The cleric even stated that it is wrong for women to watch soccer on TV and he went further to berate men that allow their wives to watch football on television.
“Do you have no shame? Do you not fear God? You let her watch these kinds of things,” he said in his sermon Friday.
Kasmi’s decree comes even as the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia allowed women in to watch matches in soccer stadiums earlier this month.
“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.
