A top Islamic organization in Egypt has reportedly issued a fatwa against online chat between unrelated men and women in the country after it declared such chats to be religiously impermissible.
The Dar Al Ifta, Egypt's official body in charge of advising Muslims on spiritual matters, said that such chats are tools of devils and form a means of spreading discord and corruption, reported the Gulf News.
The institution also warned women against sending their photographs to strangers in order to protect herself and her dignity while adding that there were evidences that show that these photos are often used by "moral deviants" to malign them.
The fatwa was issued on Friday after a Muslim asked the organization about Islam's opinion on online chats. It has restricted chats to "cases of necessity".
The decision has created quite a stir and elicited a variety of responses from the Egyptians.
While Amnah Nusseir, a professor of Islamic theology and philosophy at Al Azhar University, called the fatwa unrealistic and added that chats should be permissible or impressible depending on the content, youngsters in Egypt have openly criticized the fatwa.
Ahmad Al Sayyed posted on Twitter that the Islamic organization has left everything illegal in the country and has instead shifted its focus to online chats.