Woman can show face only to her husband: Muslim cleric on Pathan's selfie

He said women can also show face in cases involving law related things such as aadhaar or pan card

Following Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan's post on social media, where he is seen with his wife, the all-rounder has received massive backlash especially from religious leaders, who claim what he did was against Islamic law.

Calling it 'un-Islamic', Maulana Sajid Rashidi said that Irfan Pathan's background is very religious as his father was a muezzin, and so posting his wife's picture on social media is a shameful act.

"A woman can show her face only to her husband and in cases involving law related things such as aadhaar or pan card, only then can she show her face," he added.

He also said that it is due to his religious background that people started "reminding" him about his religion, and that this was not a troll.

Calling the act shameful, Sajid Rashidi said, "His wife isn't an actor that she somehow comes in front of the camera, she is a home maker and hence uploading her pictures like that is a shameful act."

He further advised the cricketer to not do anything that is not allowed in Islam.

"Right to freedom is only according to the Indian constitution, what I am telling is the Islamic law and Islamic law doesn't allow this," he added.

He said that people on social media are merely telling him that doing this is wrong and asked why does Irfan Pathan need to post pictures of his wife.

"There are so many people who are watching his wife's picture and also nail-polish is visible in the picture, and if nail-polish has been applied, one can't read namaz and if one does not read namaz, what kind of Muslim are they?" he added.

The controversy started when the Indian cricketer posted a picture with his wife on social networking sites, Instagram and Facebook, and people started trolling him.

He captioned the picture saying 'this girl is trouble', where his wife can be seen in a hijab, comically covering her face with both her hands which sported brightly painted red nails.