In Kerala Cleric's Latest Shocker, A Call For Not Letting Women Leave Home

Kerala's grand mufti Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad has stirred a fresh controversy with comments that women should remain confined to their homes and should not enter the public sphere, arguing that Islam prescribed the purdah system to protect their dignity. Speaking at the Hubbul Rasool conference in Kochi, the cleric also known as Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar compared women with gold ornaments that need to be kept safely inside a box and said bringing women into the public sphere could result in "great destruction." "Women should remain confined within their homes. They should not enter the public sphere. The Holy Quran says so," Kanthapuram said. He said it was not intended to diminish women but was meant to honour and protect them.