A video has emerged from Kerala where a Muslim cleric was seen opposing the presence of a Class 10 girl on the stage at a felicitation ceremony.
According to the reports, Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, also known as Samastha, the controversial Islamist body in Kerala, had organised a felicitation event during an inauguration of a madrasa at Malappuram. During the event, the clerics felicitated several students, including boys and girls who had successfully completed their Class 10 exams.
In the video that has gone viral since the incident, the clerics were seen presenting awards to a boy, after which a girl is invited onto the stage to receive her award.
When the class 10 student named Mashida was called on stage to receive the trophy for topping her class, senior cleric MT Abdulla Musaliyar walked towards the place where the girl was felicitated and reprimanded the fellow clerics for inviting “a girl on stage”.
“Who has invited this 10th standard girl on stage? If you repeat this, beware. Don’t invite such girls. Don’t you know the decision and policy? Call their guardians instead. Did you invite her?” the cleric asked.
The cleric then went on to slam the fellow Muslims for calling her on stage and questioned if photographs of the event will be taken. As the other clerics said that the images would be shared, the cleric expressed his reservations over sharing the stage with the girl child.
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Panakkad Sayed Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal handed over the award to the girl student.