Kerala Islamic scholars' body distances itself from leader's 'in-charge wife' remark

Thiruvananthapuram: The Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulamma has distanced itself from one of its leader's controversial statement that many ministers and bureaucrats were having "in-charge wives".

Samastha president Muhammed Jifri Muthukkoya Thangal told reporters that what Samastha central mushawara member Bahauddeen Muhammed Nadwi said was not Samastha's opinion. It was not Samastha's job to look into the personal life of others, he said.

Nadwi, who is also founder vice chancellor of Darul Huda Islamic University in Malappuram, recently said that many central and state ministers, MPs, MLAs and bureaucrats were having "in-charge wives" and such persons were openly opposing provisions in Islamic laws to have more than one wife.

He also received criticism from CPM for saying that Kerala former chief minister and communist leader E M S Namboodiripad's mother got married at the age of eleven.