No toilet, no marriage: Indian Imams

HYRYANA: If you don’t have a toilet, you can’t get married. More than 1,200 Imams from 110 villages in Punhana block of Nuh district in Haryana took this decision to check open defecation, says a report published in Indian newspaper The Hindu.

Brides and grooms belonging to these villages have to produce a certificate from their village sarpanch, verifying that they have a toilet at their home. Failure to produce the certificate will mean the local Imam will not solemnise the marriage.

The meeting, convened by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, also decided to ban the consumption of liquor and playing of music at weddings. “The Imam will solemnise the marriages only after the two families meet these conditions. The families will have to produce a certificate by the sarpanch before the wedding,” Jamiat leader Maulana Yahya Karimi told The Hindu.

Karimi, the president of the organisation in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh, said open defecation was not allowed in Islam and that the religion had always emphasised the importance of cleanliness.

The lack of toilets is particularly acute in Nuh. Of the 317 village panchayats in the district, only 170 have been officially declared open defecation free, according to District Information and Public Relations officer Dalbir Singh. Singh said efforts were being made to encourage people to build toilets and the Haryana government was also offering financial aid to families below the poverty line for the purpose.

The Jamiat said the mandatory conditions for weddings would soon be extended to the entire district of Nuh and Muslim-inhabited areas of Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

“We hope Imams outside Punhaha in Nuh will follow this. We will also hold meetings in Nuh and the other Muslim-inhabited areas in North India to make these conditions mandatory. Later, it might be extended to the entire country,” Karimi said. Karimi said he would also call upon leaders of other religious groups to join hands with them i their campaign against liquor consumption and open defecation. “The issues of liquor consumption and open defecation are not confined to any religion,” he said.