Leaders of prominent Muslim groups in Kerala condemned the case filed against Jouhar Munawar, a professor from Farook Training College in Kozhikode, who found himself in the eye of the storm after he compared women’s breasts to sliced watermelons.
In a statement issued in Kozhikode on Friday, Indian Union Muslim League’s General Secretary KPA Majeed, Samstha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulema Bahaudeen Muhammad Nadvi, Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen’s TP Abdulla Koya Madani, Jamaat-e-Islami’s MI Abdul Azeez, Kerala Samsthana Jem-Iyyathul Ulema’s A Najeeb Moulavi, Wisdom Global Islamic Mission’s Kunhimuhammad Madani Parappur and Dakshina Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulema Thodiyur Muhammad Kunhi Moulavi said that people with vested interests were carrying out a campaign against the college.
“Jouhar Munawar, a teacher at Farook College, had delivered a speech at a spiritual session in Kozhikode district. Certain sections from the speech are taken out of context and are used for a smear campaign,” they said.
Meanwhile, the Sunni Yuajana Sangham organized a march to the Koduvally police station. Addressing the march, SYS state secretary Nasar Faizy Koodathayi alleged that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government has become the ‘B team of the Narendra Modi government’.
He added, “A case was registered by the police based on an email complaint filed by a girl. No one checked the veracity of the complaint.”
The Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation said it will hold a Dharma Rakha Valayam at the college on Saturday. According to its press release, it will act as a warning to the “fake secularists and liberals” who are creating unnecessary controversies.
A Abdul Sathar, State Secretary of the Popular Front of India, warned that there would be a strong agitation if the government failed to rein in the “Sangh Parivar lobby in the police force”.
Jouhar found himself in the heart of the controversy when a video of his speech started circulating on social media.
"I am teacher of a college where 80% of the students are girls and the majority of them are Muslims. What is the situation there? They wear purdah, but they wear leggings too. And they hold their purdah a little higher in order to expose the leggings they are wearing. This is the new style," Jauhar says in the video.
He continues: "Don't even talk about muftah. They don't wear muftah anymore, do they? Just wrap a shawl over the head, and it’s done. They tie it in such a way that their chest is not covered. A woman's bosom is one of the body parts that attracts a man. And so it should be covered. But our girls expose some part of their chest. You know, like how we slice a small part of a melon to see if it’s ripe? Just like that. They want to say that rest of their body is also like the exposed part."
The video was heavily criticised on social media. Several students held protests outside the college, demanding action be taken against him. Many of them had sliced watermelons with them, and several said they would send them to him.
On Thursday, a case was registered in the Koduvallu police station against the social science professor under sections 354A (punishment for sexual harassment) and section 509 (words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.