Fatwa issued in Egypt against online chats between unrelated men, women

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. 

Several others tweeted about the fatwa-

and you fear #ISIS in Egypt !? For God's sake segregation in gym and fatwas to ban chat between boys and girls !!

— Zeinobia (@Zeinobia) August 30, 2014

Methinks you guys have bigger problems to deal with "@gulf_news: #Egypt fatwa bans online chats between sexes http://t.co/ndIc8ns5uR"

— Ali Al-Salim (@alialsalim) September 1, 2014

Men&women online chats "open door to the devil"fatwa. How wide was the door open when 1,000 massacred last yr? http://t.co/kHQt3qxRah #Egypt

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) August 31, 2014

Has Dar al-Ifta issued fatwa vs sexual assaults (non-consensual sexual contact) or just online chatting (consensual communication)? #Egypt

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) August 31, 2014

The most unrealistic fatwa ever? Egypt bans online chat between men and women http://t.co/DM19fyw9hw

— Mid. East News Flash (@MENewsflash) September 2, 2014

So, according to Egypt's highest religious authority, online "chatting" between men and women is haram (forbidden). http://t.co/nZRnhmW5mp

— Ethar El-Katatney (@etharkamal) August 30, 2014