The Muslim Educational Society (MES) has issued circular preventing female students from wearing religious veils at its educational institutions in India.
The Kozhikode-based MES runs 35 colleges and 72 schools and is one of the largest educational organisations in India, with 100,000 students in their system.
According to the circular issued by MES President P A Fazal Gafoor, students in institutions run by the MES will not be able to wear religious veils that cover their faces. “Institution heads and office-bearers of the local management of the institutions should be vigilant,” said the statement.
Gafoor has always opposed the niqab or veil. In 2014, he had said that the niqab was un-Islamic and a Western import. He had also strongly opposed the use of niqab saying that blocking sunlight on the face by wearing it continuously can result in Vitamin D deficiency in Muslim women.
The circular which was issued on April 17 and just recently gained publicity. MES’s decision comes in the wake of a hig court order in Kerala in December 2018. Two Muslim female students belonging to Christ Nagar Senior Secondary School in Thiruvallam in Thiruvananthapuram had filed a petition seeking to wear headscarves and full-sleeve shirts, even though the school had a student uniform. The court had refused to intervene in the school’s refusal of the students’ request. While upholding the school’s right to refusal, the court said, “When there is a priority of interest, individual interest must yield to the larger interest.”
The court order has helped Gafoor introduce the rule in his educational institutions. Kerala TV channels have reported the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the largest Muslim organisation in the state, has rejected it.
The MES circular says, “According to the court order, female students should not wear garments that cover their face. This should be implemented without giving way to controversy. “