Ajmer Dargah may ban women

Ajmer: Women have been praying at the doorstep of Khwaja Muinunddin Chisti's dargah for years, but the shrine's custodians may soon put a stop to that.

The custodians or Khadims have proposed a ban on women's entry during namaz. Their reason: the number of men is now so huge that the prayer queues extend to the main courtyard where women pray.

This, the Khadims say, not just distracts the men but also makes their prayers futile. "Women have a secondary status in Islam, men come first. When men are saying their namaz in the queues, women must not be in front of them," says Legal Advisor, Khadims Association, Ajmer Dargah, Hassan Chishty.

The Khadims say men must pray at masjids and dargahs but women can pray at home. However, Muslim women's rights activists disagree with Khadims' stand that men are considered superior in Islam.

"We have no such discrimination between men and women. Women too can pray in queues. If a man is an Imam and he is praying, women can also pray there but there should be purdah in between," Islamic Women's Activist, Nusrat says.

After a written complaint from the Association of Khadims, the Dargah Committee has now decided to appeal to women to stay away from the main courtyard during namaz.

The complaint seems unfair to some. "If I have the intent to pray, then nothing will distract me. If the namazi is righteous then even a passing snake will not distract him," Vice Chairman, Dargah Committee, Abdul Bari says.

The proposal to ban women from the dargah comes five weeks before the annual urs, a celebration held in memory of Sufi saint Khwaja Muinunddin Chisti

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