Ajmer dargah stops Pak woman singer

Moin Qadri/Rajan Mahan - NDTV.com - New Delhi, India
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Ajmer's famous Sufi Dargah is embroiled in another major row, a Pakistani singer Maria Baloch has been stopped from singing a qawwali at the mausoleum.

Baloch, a leading vocalist from Pakistan's Sindh province, was invited by the Rajasthan government to perform at a cultural festival.
It has not been long when the traditional servers of the Dargah known as Khadims had demanded that women be kept away from the shrine at prayer time as they distract men.
The Khadims argue that tradition prohibits women's singing at the shrine and this has re-ignited the debate over women being given second class status at the Dargah.

Maria is deeply disappointed after her dream was shattered.

"One feels very hurt for it was a desire straight from my heart that I should sing a Sufi Qawwali at this famous dargah. But I was not permitted to sing. What can I say but yes it does make me very unhappy," said Baloch.

In fact on Thursday two artists of the Pakistani delegation had already sung before Baloch and even she had begun her performance but was rudely stopped by the Khadims.
"We realise that she was keen to sing here and that she is upset at being stopped. But according to tradition, women are not permitted to sing here. There is a ban on that. We are bound by that custom," said Mehmood Hasan Chishti, Jt. Secy, Khadim Association, Ajmer Dargah.

Last week's move had invited condemnation from women devotees and human rights groups. But with a woman singer being stopped from displaying her talents the debate over women's status at the Dargah is now set to escalate.