Darul Uloom Deoband, one of the most respected Muslim seminaries in India, has issued a fatwa or a decree, against women and men of the community proferring Namaz or prayer, wearing nail polish.
A fatwa was sought by Mohammad Fazal from Muzzafarnagar asking whether using nail polish and keeping long nails by men and women is allowed in Islam. Responding to this Darul Uloom Deoband said that Islam does not prohibit women from using nail polish if they do not contain impure material. They can apply nail polish but before offering Namaz they have to completely remove it because a layer of nail paint hinders the wuzu water (ritual purification) from washing the nails completely. Darul Uloom Deoband added that having long nails is prohibited for both men and women and it is compulsory for them to cut nails after 40 days.
Talking about the fatwa, Qari Syed Ishaq Gaura, National President of Jamiat Dawatul Muslimeen and an Imam in Saharanpur, said: "Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa against Muslim women using nail polish because it is un-Islamic and illegal. Rather women should use Mehendi on their nails."
Farah Faiz, an advocate and national president of Rashtriyawadi Muslim Mahila Sangh, opposed the fatwa by the theological school. "They never issue a fatwa against men. Islam prohibits a number of things but still, that is carried out by people. They only issue the fatwa against women to do everything with their permission," she said.
"The Darul Uloom is even in Pakistan, but they do not issue such orders there. Only the one based in India come up with such fatwas all the time," she added.
Earlier this year, the seminary ordered that Muslim women should not watch men playing soccer, saying, it violates the tenets of Islam. "Football is played wearing shorts, so watching men playing with bare knees is forbidden for women; it's against religious belief," senior cleric Mufti Athar Kasmi had said even as Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia had allowed women to watch matches in soccer stadiums.
Last year, the Islamic school issued an edict, prohibiting women from cutting hair and shaping their eyebrows. Darul Uloom Deoband, which is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in South Asia, is based in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district.