India

Kerala CM Reaffirms Criticism of Islamic Scholar's Remarks on Women, Denies Backtracking

By PTI

Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan stated on Wednesday that his position on remarks made by senior Islamic scholar Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar regarding women in public life remains unchanged, though he welcomed criticism of his stance. Speaking at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Satheesan said he would publicly announce any shift in his position if it occurred, but no such change had taken place.

The Chief Minister's comments follow the disappearance of a video from his Facebook page in which he had criticized Kanthapuram's remarks, which the Chief Minister's Office attributed to a technical glitch. This came after reports suggested the post was taken down due to pressure from Sunni Muslim leaders aligned with Kanthapuram, who had met Satheesan at his office following his earlier press conference.

Kanthapuram had previously stated that allowing women onto public platforms would lead to "great destruction," a comment Satheesan strongly criticized as reflecting 19th-century thinking. When asked about strong criticism directed at him in Suprabhatam, the publication of the E K Sunni faction of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, Satheesan defended their right to respond. "I have taken a stand, and I remain on that stand. They have the freedom to criticize me and write against me—this is democracy," he said.

Satheesan acknowledged that Kerala's civil society was closely watching his position but emphasized that he did not consider himself immune to criticism. "Criticism does not make someone my enemy. Sometimes I may be criticized fairly, sometimes unfairly. If the criticism is valid, I will correct myself," he said, adding that he had no issue with the language used against him and would leave it to the public to judge.

The Suprabhatam editorial had accused Satheesan of basing his response to Kanthapuram's remarks on selective input from certain members of the Muslim community, comparing it to the parable of blind men describing an elephant. It further argued that those advising Satheesan had misunderstood the Prophet's role as a liberator of women during an era marked by practices such as female infanticide.

Addressing the controversy over the vanished video, Satheesan accused sections of the media of spreading misinformation. He explained that portions of the video were trimmed for Instagram due to differences in the platform's posting algorithm, and when cross-posted to Facebook, the duplicate was removed since the full version was already available there. He confirmed the video remains accessible on both platforms and had received positive engagement on Instagram.

Satheesan also dismissed reports linking his meeting with leaders of the A P Kanthapuram faction of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama to any change in his stance. He clarified that the meeting had been scheduled nearly three weeks earlier and was unrelated to his subsequent remarks on Kanthapuram. He noted that the leaders were already in Thiruvananthapuram at the time of his press conference and had traveled from Kozhikode the previous day, meeting him later that evening at his residence. "Certain media outlets suggested I changed my position after meeting them, which is incorrect," he said.