Women can't do eyebrows says Deoband fatwa

In a yet another 'fatwa' (religious decree), prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband has termed eyebrow doing by women as ''un-islamic''.
 
The 'fatwa' issued by the seminary's Darul Ifta (department of fatwa) in response to a query, has also said that women should not get their hair cut as it too was against the tents of Islam.
 
A man from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district had sent a query to the seminary seeking to know if haircut and eyebrow doing were allowed in Islam.
 
''Eyebrow doing and cutting hair should be avoided as they are not in accordance with the tents of Islam,'' said the fatwa issued by senior cleric of the seminary Maulana Saadique Quasmi.
 
He said that Islam imposed ten restrictions on the women. ''These two are among those ten restrictions...just as Muslim men are not allowed to cut their beard, the women are not allowed haircut,'' the cleric added.
 
He said that women these days visited beauty parlors frequently. ''They (women) should not do it,'' Quasmi said in the fatwa issued on Friday.
 
Earlier also Darul Uloom had issued fatwas on issues concerning the women. In the earlier fatwas the seminary had said that women should not work as it made difficult for them to put on veil.
 
The seminary has a created a record of sorts in the issuance of fatwas. Many of its diktats have also come under sharp criticism from women's activists and Muslim organisations. The seminary, however, defended them saying that it merely answered the queries on the basis of the 'Shariat' (Islamic law).