Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has criticised an Islamic scholar for allegedly shouting at the organisers of an event in Malappuram for inviting a girl on stage.
The Kerala governor’s official Twitter account quoted Khan as saying that this was yet another example of Muslim women being kept in solitary confinement “totally disobeying the commandments of the Quran”. Khan’s criticism was a series of criticisms against the scholar after purported images of the incident went viral and provoked protests on social media.
A video clip was released by news channels MT Abdullah Musaliyar, Jamiatul Ulama, a senior official of Samastha Kerala, a group. One of the organisers scolded a class 10th student for calling DES to receive the award. The incident occurred during the inauguration of a madrasa building in the Malappuram district, where the student was recently felicitated.
The girl was presented a memento by Indian Muslim Union (IUML) chief Panakkad Syed Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal. Soon after the award was presented, Musaliar asked the organisers why the girl was invited to the stage.
“Who invited a Class 10 girl to the stage? If you do this again. Don’t call such girls here. Don’t you know the rules of Samastha? Were you the one who called her? Ask her parents to come to the stage to collect the award. Don’t do such things while we are sitting here. This will appear in photos and be telecast,” a visibly angry Musaliyar told the organisers while Thangal was standing next to him.
To express his displeasure, Khan tweeted on Wednesday, “Sad to hear that a talented young lady was humiliated on stage in Malappuram district while receiving her well-deserved award only because she was born into a Muslim family,”.
