Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband issues fatwa banning Muslim women from grooming eyebrows

The Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, the largest seminary in India, issued a bizarre fatwa on Saturday which bans women from plucking, trimming, shaping their eyebrows and cutting hair, according to media reports. [caption id=“attachment_2708156” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Darul Uloom Deoband. PTI[/caption] Darul Ifta, the edict-issuing authority of the seminary, termed all these activities as “un-Islamic” and asked Muslim women to refrain from them, ANI reported. “Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa against Muslim women cutting their hair and shaping their eyebrows,” Maulana Kazmi of Darul Uloom Deoband said. Supporting the fatwa, he added that women were also prohibited from going to the beauty parlours. “Darul Uloom should have given this fatwa long ago. Women are now prohibited to go into s beauty parlour and getting a haircut in a parlour is prohibited for women. Beard for men is important and in the same way hairs are important for women. Shaving the beard is prohibited for men, in the same way cutting the hair is prohibited for women. We respect the fatwa of Darul Uloom,” he told Times Now. Adding to it, Maulana Mufti Arshad Faruqui, head of the Darul Ifta, said that grooming the eyebrow to look beautiful is against the tenets of Islam, according to The Telegraph. The fatwa came in response to a query by a Muslim man in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, asking if women were allowed to cut hair and groom eyebrows in Islam. It has sparked off a controversy as women activists all over are questioning the misogynistic fatwa. Women activist Mariya Alam told ANI, “Darul Uloom is also becoming the part of world’s conspiracy against Muslims, where they are portrayed as extremists, terrorists and are believed to torture women.” “Islam is not about putting restrictions on women but about empowering women,” Alam added. This is not the first time that the Darul Uloom Deoband has been in the news for such fatwas. In 2013, it issued a fatwa banning photography , while in 2010, it said that women and men cannot work together unless the women are “properly” clothed.