Manama: A Saudi debate over a fatwa that allows Muslim women to appear in public without the niqab, the face-covering veil worn by an overwhelming majority of Saudi women, is snowballing into a major controversy as more scholars are voicing their arguments for and against it.
The storm was stirred by religious scholar Ahmad Al Gamdi, a former head of the Makkah branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice -- the religious police -- who said that women did not have to wear the niqab, an inevitable feature of Saudi society.
His edict set off a tsunami of criticism that accused him of undermining social values and inciting Saudi women to debauchery.
The situation was compounded after the scholar appeared on a television programme on a pan-Arab channel sitting alongside his wife who was not wearing the niqab.
Firestorm
The appearance was seen as a challenge, and the firestorm this time engulfed the scholar and his wife as the online debate over the issue intensified.
However, some voices of moderation called for reining in partisan fanaticism and adopting rational attitudes.
“Those who wish to discuss this case must be careful not to insult anyone,” Shaikh Adel Al Kilani, a religious scholar, said.
“There should be no accusations without hard evidence or proof. There are schools of thought that allow it and others that oppose it. No woman should be vilified or accused for making either decision. People need to be very cautious not to accuse any woman of debauchery because there are some prominent scholars who had allowed it,” he said.
No consensus
Eisa Al Gaith, a member of the Shura Council, the national consultative institution, said there was no consensus over the issue of the niqab.
“Women should not be condemned for not wearing one [veil] since they adhere to a school of thought that does not make it compulsory,” he said.
“However, the niqab cannot be dismissed in a village or area where all women wear it in order to ensure there is no troubling confusion. There is a need to appreciate the situation from various angles," he said in remarks published by local daily Al Watan on Thursday.
"A court for instance cannot force a woman to wear a niqab as per the wishes of her husband. Religious scholars and thinkers should rise above the comments made on social networks by common people who do not possess enough knowledge about religion. At the meeting of the Muslim Scholars, there was a woman at the podium whose face was not covered,” Al Gaith added.
Those who expressed pride at the stature of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s wife who does not wear a niqab should not have engaged in insulting and criticising the wife of Al Gamdi, he added.
“I am not here calling for dismissing the niqab, but I do call upon all religious scholars to be rational in their stance. They cannot attack other schools of thought or Salafists who allowed women not to cover their faces,” he said.
Al Gaith attributed the severe onslaught on Al Gamdi to his affiliation.
“If Al Gamdi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the attack would not be so severe because the issue is basically related to affiliations. The wives of some of our most prominent Muslim Brotherhood scholars do not cover their faces both in Saudi Arabia and abroad. Some of them take off the niqab once they are on the plane. It is a fact and let us not pretend otherwise,” he said.
