Of course it’s sexist to refuse to shake a woman’s hand

It was an awkward moment. Former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov refused to shake CBS Sports host Kate Scott’s hand during the post-match coverage of the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday. While Scott handled the situation with immense grace and tact, even apologising for offering the handshake, it was a deeply insulting move from Nurmagomedov. He happily shook the hands of the male, ex-footballer pundits, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, while blatantly sidelining Scott. It is hard to imagine CBS Sports – or indeed any other media channel in the West – tolerating such an openly sexist gesture in normal circumstances. But here, CBS Sports and other media outlets excused it on the grounds that it was rooted in Nurmagomedov’s Islamic faith.

Islamic scriptures forbid physical contact with the namahram (non-marital or blood relations) and those one is not legally allowed to have sexual intercourse with. Some hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, go as far as to say: ‘If one of you were to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle, that would be better for him than touching a woman who is not permissible for him.’ Other Koranic injunctions uphold gender segregation and mandate women being covered up a certain way – all to ensure Muslim men’s separation from women who are not ‘permissible’ for them under Sharia law.

Among Muslim circles, Nurmagomedov – a native of the Russian republic of Dagestan – has been receiving widespread praise on social media for following his faith. Refusing to shake Scott’s hand is defended by some Muslims as a mark of ‘respect’, a laughable inversion of the truth. Others have claimed this was a demonstration of his freedom of choice – a defence I suspect they wouldn’t offer to Muslim women refusing to adhere to Islamic modesty codes. ‘Freedom’ and ‘respect’ only seem to matter when they conform to religious scripture.

It is true that Nurmagomedov is exercising his freedom of choice when he refuses to acknowledge women in public and professional interactions. It is a similar choice that has been made by other conservative Muslims in the West. Students in Switzerland hit international headlines when they refused to acknowledge their female teachers with a handshake. As did a group of Norwegian Muslim women who rebuffed the crown prince’s offer of a hand. But that doesn’t mean we should allow this to be normalised.

What makes such refusals to shake hands all the more preposterous is that Muslim statespersons have long shaken hands with their counterparts of the opposite sex when doing diplomacy. Some Islamic clerics are also issuing independent fatwas encouraging the shaking of hands with the opposite gender as a mark of respect. It does not make someone ‘a bad Muslim’ simply to shake someone’s hand.

No, to celebrate Nurmagomedov’s brazenly sexist gesture is to embrace bigotry, pure and simple. Yet all too often, any critique of Islamic sexism – including that exercised by Muslim voices, especially in the West – is drowned out by loud allegations of ‘Islamophobia’. We should not give a free pass to such hardline, anti-social beliefs.

Tragically, Western political and cultural elites don’t simply accommodate Islamic sexism nowadays. Increasingly, they celebrate it. Organisations like the Council of Europe have put out advertisements championing Islamic modesty dress, such as the niqab and hijab. Such clothing is often forced on Muslim women – violently so in countries like Afghanistan and Iran.

We need to be far less squeamish about criticising aspects of Islam that don’t align with Western, liberal values. It is not ‘Islamophobic’ to take a stand for equality.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a writer based in Pakistan.