Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan rejects remarks by Grand Mufti T. Abdul Wahid Kanthapuram about women’s participation in public life. Satheesan says the comments reflect outdated thinking and should not be used to judge women’s roles or rights in society.
Kanthapuram had stated that bringing women into the public sphere would cause “great destruction” and argued that Islam prescribes purdah as a way to prevent such outcomes. Both accounts frame the dispute as one between political leadership and a senior religious figure, with the central disagreement focused on interpretation of women’s participation in public spaces.
