A Muslim scholar says some parts of an oath administered to volunteers of Kudumbashree, an all-women network under the Kerala government, violate religious freedom and contradict Quranic principles.
The pledge that women should have equal rights to their father’s property didn’t sit well with Nasar Faizi Koodathayi, a prominent leader of the influential Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyathul Qutba Committee.
During the gender resource meetings of the Kudumbashree Mission, the state government’s poverty eradication mission, the district coordinator administers the oath.
According to the circular, women and men will have equal rights over property.
Koodathayi said the pledge violated the Constitution’s guarantees of religious freedom.
The state government has been implementing various commendable projects through Kudumbashree as part of the Union Ministry of Rural Development’s gender campaign.
He claimed, however, that some of them violated religious freedom’s fundamental rights.
During the fourth week, there’s a proposal to take a pledge at the gender resource meeting in Kudumbashree. The last part of the pledge asks women to say, “We will give property rights to sons and daughters equally.”
The Holy Quran says a man has a share of property equal to the property of two women, and a woman gets half what a man gets.
The scholar said this couldn’t be considered discrimination since the man is responsible for looking after the family.
He added that those who claim discrimination weren’t seeing the expenses the male members have to bear.
A scholar warned that Kudumbashree’s “neglecting fundamental rights of religion and constitution as part of gender neutrality” would surely invite protests.
The football craze among youth sparked a row recently when Koodathayi said something.
