Source: IndiaToday

A Muslim-Indian cleric just issued a fatwa against women watching football, claiming they'd lose focus over the players' bare legs.

Mufti Athar Kasmi said women watching men "playing with bare knees" violates the tenets of Islam and is thus considered haram, according to the Times of India.

Kasmi, a cleric at Darul Uloom - Asia's largest Sunni-Muslim seminary - made the comments during a sermon delivered on Friday. 

"Women shouldn't watch football and shouldn't be looking at men's bare knees. Women shouldn't be looking at men," he said in a video uploaded by India Today.

The cleric went on to question what value these football games would bring into women's lives ... because being passionate about football isn't enough?

"Their attention will be on that only and they will even miss the scores," Kasmi said, according to Arab News.

One Muslim women's rights activist in the Indian northern city of Lucknow criticized the fatwa.

"It implies that Muslim women should not watch any athletic event, tennis matches or swimming championships. How it can be immoral for a woman to watch men playing sport?" Sahira Nasih said, according to The Times of India.

Earlier this month, Darul Uloom issued a fatwa against designer burqas, claiming they are haram in Islam.

"Such burqas are against Islam. Only loose robe should be used by them," he said, according to New Indian Express.

Not the only cleric who believes women shouldn't watch football games

Earlier this month, the former head of religious edicts in Saudi Arabia's Assir governorate, Sheikh Saad Al Hajari,  said it's haram (unacceptable) for Muslim women to watch football matches on television because "their eyes would be attracted to footballers' thighs." 

Al-Hajari made the statement in response to a question he was asked during a religious sermon held a few years back.

Footage of his response was uploaded to Youtube in 2015, but resurfaced in recent weeks on Arab social media.