Shabana Azmi and Salman Khan

Oct. 29: Shabana Azmi has sought a debate and some clerics have obliged.

But the topic on the table is whether the actress has a right to demand a debate, not whether Muslim women have to wear veil without exception.

Several clerics have questioned the “locus standi” of Shabana to seek a debate on the relevance of veil for Muslim women. One community leader has advised her to focus on the dress sense of male colleagues like Salman Khan.

The veil controversy, which originated in Europe and then spread to Australia, reached India after Shabana suggested in London that there was no Islamic injunction compelling women to cover their faces. “The Quran speaks about women wearing clothes to cover their modesty. A woman is supposed to cover herself to be modest. She does not need to cover her face. A time has come for a debate on the issue,” Shabana said last week.

Scholars felt that the tenets of Islam more or less support what Shabana said. The Quran orders Muslims to dress in a “modest” fashion.

Scholars and jurists have determined the minimum requirements for Muslim women’s dress, which should cover the entire body, with the exception of the face and the hands. The attire should not be form fitting, sheer or so eye-catching as to attract undue attention or reveal the shape of the body, they said.

However, All India Muslim Personal Law Board spokesperson Qasim Rasool Illyas said opinion is divided on whether the face should be entirely covered.

Radical leaders like the Delhi Jama Masjid shahi imam Syed Ahmad Bukhari, the Bhopal-based Ausaf Shamiri Khurram and Maulana Khalid Rasheed of Firangi Mahal, Lucknow, accused Shabana of indulging in a publicity stunt.

“It has become a fashion of sorts for some liberal Indian Muslims to criticise the teachings of the Quran and Hadith,” Rasheed said.

Shamiri said Shabana has “no locus standi” to speak on Muslim issues as he had issued fatwas against her twice — first for publicly offering a peck on Nelson Mandela and, on another occasion, for playing the role of a lesbian and shaving off her head in films.

The moderate elements in the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, too, criticised the actress for commenting on an issue on which she is not an authority. “She is an actress but no authority on the Quran or Islam,” Illyas said.

He said that in a democratic society like India, it was the fundamental right of an individual to decide about the dress code.

A lesser known feature is the dress code laid down for Muslim males. A Muslim man must always be covered from the navel to the knees. He should not wear tight, sheer, revealing or eye-catching clothes.

He is also prohibited from wearing silk (except for medical reasons) or gold jewellery. “If these norms are applied, actor Salman Khan will have a tough time,” Shamiri said, without elaborating why he singled out the actor whose sartorial tastes are shared by many others in Bollywood.

Shamiri asked Shabana to comment on fellow actors who have a reputation of going shirtless.