LDF gender-neutral education policy faces flak from Muslim organisations in Kerala

The party’s state committee, which met in Kozhikode on Saturday, 13 August, directed its minister Ahmed Devarkovil to take a tough stand in Cabinet meetings against the implementation of the policy.

Vote bank problems?

The government, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has so far claimed that its second consecutive term in power was made possible only because a large number of sympathisers from various Muslim organisations and their political platform, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), thought differently and found the progressive LDF as their last refuge.

Vijayan used many public platforms to argue that the shift in preference of traditional Muslim voters for progressive values brought the LDF back to power despite all the anti-incumbency factors.

The state’s all-powerful Muslim organisation, the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Khutuba Committee, has now said that a seminar would be organised on 24 August in Kozhikode to equip devotees to deal with the different aspects of the LGBTQ lifestyle and gender-neutrality.

The seminar will be inaugurated by Islamic scholar Syed Muhammad Jifry Muthukoya Thangal and presided over by the committee president Koyyod Umar Musaliyar. Prominent religious leaders such as MT Aboobacker Darimi, Suhaib Al Haythami, Mujthaba Faizi, Abdul Hameed Hudavi, and Shafeeq Rehmani are expected to address the seminar.

The event comes in the backdrop of a meeting of different Muslim organisations convened by the IUML recently to create awareness in the community on the vexed issue. That meeting had also decided to vehemently resist the “imposition of gender-neutral ideology” in educational institutions.

‘Dangerous trend’

“Schools in Kerala are witnessing the dangerous trend of gender-neutrality, which evolved in the West. We have planned a seminar as part of the efforts to counter such anti-religious ideas introduced under the cover of progressiveness,” the committee’s state general secretary Nazar Faizi Koodathayi told South First.

“In the beginning, we will sensitise the khateebs who deliver the Friday sermons at the mosques. They are free to propagate the message before or after the sermons, and they will carry it to the masses,” he said.

“The move of the LDF government is not limited to a mere change in dressing patterns. It involves a political ideology that must be exposed,” said Faizi.

Last month, the IUML leadership attempted to resist the LDF government’s move to hand over the task of appointment in mosques in Kerala — currently done by the Waqf Board — to the State Public Service Commission. That IUML move was shot down by the committee’s president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal.

This time, however, this highly revered Muslim spiritual leader has taken the lead in the campaign inside mosques, and solicited the cooperation of the IUML.

In the meantime, other Muslim organisations are also busy scheduling programmes against gender neutrality.

A day-long workshop will be held under the aegis of the Mujahid preacher MM Akbar in Kozhikode on 21 August. Its title is, “Gender neutrality: Reality behind the rhetoric.”

The Wisdom Islamic Organisation is organising a seminar on “Gender politics and curriculum revision” on the Calicut University campus on 15 August.

Curiously, all these events are expected to not only discuss gender neutrality, but also turn into robust platforms opposing the rights of the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, and others) community.

“In the case of gender neutrality, we believe this is not a matter of dress. The ruling LDF has a clear political agenda behind the move. On the other hand, the very concept of LGBTQIA+ is to destroy the concept of man and woman as different gender entities,” said Faizi in a Facebook post that details the 24 August event.

Changing equations

When the IUML, the second-largest constituent of the United Democratic Front (UDF), came out against gender-neutral uniforms, the move invited stiff resistance from pro-Left women and human rights organisations.

However, several pro-LDF Muslim organisations, including the all-powerful Sunni faction led by Kanthapuram Abubacker Musaliyar, expressed their solidarity with the IUML, which marked a shift of sand beneath the feet of the Pinarayi Vijayan government. That’s when the LDF and its leaders turned cautious while commenting on the subject.

MK Muneer, deputy leader of the UDF in the Kerala Assembly, triggered the first discussion on the hot topic by saying that the CPI(M) was promulgating atheism through discussions on gender-neutral uniforms.

Citing posters of events related to gender politics and sex education conducted by various organisations on campuses in Kerala, Muneer alleged that women were being pressured into agreeing on every idea in the name of progressiveness.

“Forcing a woman to dress like a man is a sign of a patriarchal society,” said Muneer.

Opposition to orthodoxy

But reformists within the community have openly denounced the orthodoxy.

Writer and social critic MN Karassery has accused the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama of being one of the most orthodox organisations in the Muslim community in Kerala, one that adopted a resolution in its initial days saying that Muslim girls should not be given education.

“Even the Namboothiri Brahmin community in Kerala used to believe like this at that time. They grew past that. Now, the Samastha is running education centres for girls. It had opposed the order that raised women’s legal age of marriage to 18. When family planning was introduced in 1969-70, Christian and Muslim organisations opposed it. The Christian and Muslim communities still oppose co-education. It all shows that they are living in the past,” said Karassery.

“Who said trousers are a man’s dress? When it was introduced in a government school in Balussery in the Kozhikode district last year, the girl students found it comfortable to wear. It is comfortable compared to a saree, skirt, and salwar.

“Now the problem is this will lead to a situation where Muslim girls will be taken away from public education. They will be made to study only in educational institutions run by Muslim organisations. In such institutions, a girl will not be even allowed to get on a stage to receive an award for her achievement,” he predicted.

As for the LGBTQIA+ issue, Karassery said people within the community were well aware that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people were among them.

“They call it unnatural. But modern science does not even consider it as an aberration,” said the writer.

Karassery said that it was unfortunate to see a regressive stand of politicians like Muneer, who — as a social justice minister —introduced the country’s first transgender policy in Kerala.

When South First contacted Kerala’s General Education Minister V Sivankutty, his response was cautious: The government would not enforce anything unilaterally on any community.

“Gender-neutral education institutions are a long-term concept requiring broader discussions and consent. We are not in a hurry to enforce anything and invite any community’s wrath,” he said.