Limbe Islamic Information Bureau (IIB) coordinator, Sheikh Ahmed Chienda has bemoaned lack of Muslim sisters visiting the bureaus in the country, and has attributed the problem to misconception and poor understanding towards the operations of the IIB.
Sheikh Chienda was reacting to the current allegations that the organization receives low turn of Muslim women at its offices in Limbe due to its seating plan which favours only men.
“Some women have been coming to my office complaining that they can not visit the IIB to read or acquire Islamic knowledge because there are no separations between where men and women seat. I personally made efforts to find a good room only meant for women but up to now not even a single sister has come to visit. This is very bad situation to us as an office because others believe the bureaus are for men only,” Chienda old our reporter.
However, on her remarks, International college of Business and management (ICBM) Director Hanifah Ndeketa said that it is hard for them as women to visit the bureau because of the set up of its seating plan and she expressed ignorance about the new system of seating at the Limbe IIB.
“Well, if they have changed the system I do not have any problem to visit the bureau,” she said.
Sheikh Chienda however promised that they will conduct some civic education on the new ladies room through their radio program called “Za ku Information Bureau” that is broadcast on Radio Islam Malawi every Sunday evening.
The Islamic information bureau is a department of Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) established in 1999.
So far, it has 14 offices including one in Zambia. Other activities include civic education for various sectors of the society, capacity building programmes, Library services, media interaction, and alhaqq news letter produced monthly and distributed to over 750,000 readers.