Equality? Haji Ali will not allow either men or women to touch tomb

This week, many rejoiced after the Haji Ali dargah trust told the Supreme Court that it would allow women to enter the sanctum of the shrine from now on. This was seen as returning to the position before 2012 when women were allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum. But here’s the big catch everybody missed. From now on, neither men nor women will be allowed to touch the tomb. If the additional affidavit submitted by the trust before the Supreme Court is to go by, the trust has said it is going to construct a restricted area around the tomb called “mujawar area”. Neither men, nor women will be allowed in that area. The new scheme has been devised by the trust on the basis of “the concept of equality between men and women in Islam”.

In the already spacecrunched mazhar sharief, a sizeable 12 square metres area around the tomb will now be out of bounds for both men and women. In a reconstruction plan submitted to the Supreme Court, this 12 sq m area has been marked as the mujawar area. The trust has sought four months to implement this new scheme involving “redesign (of) the flooring of the parts of the area which houses the sanctum sanctorum.” “The trustees believe in complete equality of men and women as envisaged in Islam and to give effect to the said principle of equality have decided that both men and women shall be allowed to enter the room which houses the Sanctum Sanctorum of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari ( R. A.) right up to the Sanctum, however, neither men nor women shall be allowed to touch the Sanctum Sanctorum of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari (R.A.),” stated the resolution passed by the Haji Ali Dargah Trust on 11 October this year. This was submitted to the Supreme Court this week. The Sunday Guardian has a copy of this resolution. This resolution has scrapped the previous resolution passed on 6 August 2015.

It can be a matter of debate on whether this will really mean “status quo ante” as per the Bombay High Court’s order. The Bombay High Court had ordered that the position previous to 2012 be restored, wherein men and women were allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum and to touch the tomb. Can the trust then unilaterally alter the conditions of “status quo ante”? “Earlier, women were allowed to touch the tomb.