By Manish Rai
It seems that Darul Uloom, Deoband which is one of the most important and influential schools of Islamic Studies in Sunni Islam doesn’t have any time to shed light on women’s education. The multiple requests were submitted through the online fatwa portal and email correspondence by Manish Rai a geopolitical analyst for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and editor of views around news agency. Darul Uloom didn’t even bother to respond even after getting chased for months.
Manish Rai currently based in Sydney, Australia initially submitted the request to the online fatwa department of Darul Uloom called Darul Ifta in November 2022 after the Taliban banned women’s education in Afghanistan. The request was made to clarify whether women’s education is permitted under sharia and whether the Taliban ban on women’s education in Afghanistan is as per Islamic beliefs. But even after contacting Darul Uloom for months, no response was provided by the Islamic institute.
It should be noted that Darul Uloom, Deoband founded in 1866 in a small town of Deoband around 100 miles north of Delhi by Muslim scholars eventually has become one of the most prestigious Sunni Islamic institutes in the world. The school of thought of the institute is known as Deobandi Islam. After the partition of India, many noted scholars of this institute moved to newly created Pakistan and set up seminaries, or madrassas, teaching an austere version of Islam, particularly along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. And that is where most of the Taliban and their leadership were educated. Hence the Taliban is also a follower of the Deobandi ideology. It might be the case that this is making Darul Uloom a bit reluctant to clarify their stand on the Taliban’s decision to ban women’s education.
