Zakir Naik’s remarks on unmarried women gets slammed by social media

Dr Zakir Naik’s tour of Pakistan is not going well. The scholar, whose views are quite divisive, berated and insulted a Pashtun woman during one session, complained about state airline PIA charging him for extra luggage, and now he has made a disparaging comment about unmarried women. A clip that has recently gone viral shows him explaining the options an unmarried woman is left with: either marry a married man or become public property, which he said is equal to becoming a “bazaari aurat.”

However, in the same clip he does mention that people object to the term “bazaari aurat”, but he says to them that there is no better word for these women despite knowing it is harsh. “If you ask a good (pious) woman that if you’re not able to find a man who doesn’t have a wife and you have two options, marry a man who is already married or become a bazaari aurat, then a good woman will always say that I’ll go for the first one.”

The insulting and medieval statement quickly gained ire from people across all the social media forums, and trolling from right-wing accounts.

A Twitter user by the name of Oshaz shared the video and posted, “Zakir Naik keeps on digging himself deeper with every question he answers. First, it was the KPK girl. Now, it’s him telling how an unmarried woman who can’t find a single man has two options. Either marry a married man or become a “bazaari aurat”.”

She was contested by Umar Farroq by acknowledging that with Pashtun girl statement he was surprised but here he agrees with him as he said that the women would go for the first option.

Oshaz in the reply pointed out that there can be a third option as well where “A Muslim woman being pious and religious? Those two options are not it.”

Journalist Maria Memon shared the video on her account “mariamemonedit” with the caption, “It is year 2024 and still a single woman is being conveniently reduced to “bazaari aurat” just because she doesn’t have a husband. It’s 2024 and the women are still being considered respectful only if they have a husband. It’s 2024 and men are still discussing women!”.

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An Indian user by the name of Zaffar lambasted Dr Zakir for his remarks and thanked Indian Prime Minister Narinder Modi for driving him out of India.

A user by the name of Sehrish Maan posted that he really respects Dr Zakir but being a religious scholar doesn’t give him a license to say anything.