Illyas Shamsi, an Imam in Hyderabad, has cracked the code to a happy married life and is sharing his knowledge with the world. In a recent advertisement for a Dulhan Course, the Family Institute run by Illyas, claims to introduce students to the concept of a happy married life.
He does not discriminate. It's not just for women even though the poster might suggest so. “We are open to people joining us irrespective of their gender, age, religion, educational qualification or marital status," says Illyas, even though most of his clients are Muslims. The institute claims to have successfully counselled people for the past two years. Illyas has been a marriage counsellor for quite some time now and has been running this programme for the past couple of years. “I studied a lot of cases of divorce and I found that the reasons behind marital discord were trivial issues that could have been easily sorted,” says the Imam who is also a social worker and runs the Family Institute in Hyderabad's Balreddy Nagar.
Illyas has an explanation for his advertisement sounding misogynist. You might or might not agree to it but he says the name matters. "If I would have called it Home Management course then no one would pay attention. You would look at an ad that says Dulhan course. It is a head-turner," he says. Reacting to the flak that he received on Twitter he says, "I do not think the onus on men. I know it takes two people to make a marriage work and I wholeheartedly believe that. The name was just marketing."
The course promises to teach you sewing, cooking, beauty tips, home management, Mehendi and finance and budgeting. Despite Illyas's assurance, the course does not sound very heterogeneous and gender-sensitive. But it hardly matters what we think to Illyas. He claims to be attending more than 50 calls on any given day.
