Muslim women have to shed burqa to Vote: SC
January 24, 2010
The Supreme Court on Friday observed that Muslim women have to shed their burqa to vote. A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma gave the order on Friday while hearing a petition by Madurai resident Ajmal Khan, who had pleaded that printing photos of Muslim women in the voters list violates Islam and their fundamental right to practise and profess their religion.
The Supreme Court was not convinced, and asked him what Muslim women would do if they contested elections.
“What if you want to contest an election?” asked the court. “If you have such strong religious sentiments, and do not want to be seen by members of public, then do not go to vote. You cannot go with burqa to vote. It will create complications in identification of voters.
“If someone comes to vote in a burqa and the photograph was also taken with a veil covering the face, how would anyone identify the voter?” the court said.
Khan filed a plea in the apex court after the Madras High Court ruling dismissed his plea questioning Election Commission of India’s move to have photographs of voters in electoral rolls.
“The religious custom and preachings of Holy Quran lay down that Muslim women should wear purdah and ‘burqa’ and show their faces only to their husbands and close relatives,” Khan said in his plea.
Well I agree with the observation made by the apex court but my view is that in a secular country like India everyone has the right to practice their religion and nobody should be forced to act in a way which hurts the religious sentiments. If photos without burqa is a necessity to vote, which I agree to, at least the court can direct the Election Commission to appoint a women election officer at every booth so that the Muslim women can easily reveal their identity and vote. These are my personal views. Are we going to see a new controversy in the days to come. What will the political parties who treats Muslims as their vote-bank have to say about the observation?
Comments
Got something to say?