‘Women Not Required to Cover Face Under Sharia’

Shah Marai—AFP

Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology still advises women to cover up to ‘avoid threats or mischief.’

Pakistan’s top religious body has said women are not required to cover their faces, hands or feet under Islamic sharia law, a rare judgment from the conservative council of clerics seen as “encouraging” by rights activists.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which was formed in 1962 to advise Parliament on the compatibility of laws with sharia, made the ruling during its meeting on Monday. However, council chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani also “advised women to follow ethics and have a careful attitude in society,” a spokesman told AFP.

He said the cleric had recommended women “cover up their body parts to avoid threats or mischief.”

Farzana Bari, a prominent women’s rights activist, termed the ruling “very interesting.”

“It is a good sign, the clergy seems to have realized that their legitimacy is being challenged and this ruling is aimed at improving their image,” said Bari. “The orthodox clerics have been put on the back foot, look at the Supreme Court decision about blasphemy laws, it’s encouraged some clerics to come forward and speak about amending the laws,” she said.

Blasphemy is a volatile issue in Pakistan, an Islamic republic of some 200 million, where even unproven allegations can stir mob violence and lynchings. But this month the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Mumtaz Qadri, who killed Salmaan Taseer for seeking blasphemy law reform, in a historic verdict hailed by moderates as a blow against religious extremism.

The CII, whose recommendations are non-binding, has drawn widespread criticism in the past for other rulings. Last year, the religious body declared the prohibition of child marriage incompatible with Islam and demanded that the government amend its laws, prompting outrage from human rights activists.