Kerala's Muslim Educational Society's President gets death threat for banning veils

Thiruvananthapuram, May 04: Kerala's Muslim Educational Society's President Dr PA Fazal Gafoor has reportedly filed a police complaint stating that received a death threat for a circular issued him which banned female students and faculty on its campuses from wearing niqab, the face veil.

The decision to ban the face veil had invited condemnation from some Muslim groups. Some fundamentalists accused the MES of interfering in the religious practices of students and faculty.

Even within the MES, Gafoor faced a backlash for circular disallowing veils. The Kasargod district unit of MES has asked its president P A Fazal Gafoor to withdraw the circular.

The Kozhikode-based MES - founded in 1964 by Fazal Gafoor's father P K Abdul Gafoor - runs 35 colleges and 72 schools and has around 1 lakh students in its institutions.

According to the circular, issued by Fazal Gafoor, students will not be able to wear religious veils that cover their faces on the campuses.

From 2019-20 academic year, heads of institutions and local managements must ensure that female students do not come to classes with their faces covered, the circular said.

We must discourage all undesirable tendencies in campuses the circular signed by Dr P A Fazal Gafoor said.