Kyrgyz imam says women's exposed thighs behind rising meat prices

• His remarks cause outcry countrywide.
• Kyrgyzstan's highest Islamic authority has defended Imam Doolov.
• He says he did not intend to demean women.

An Imam in Kyrgyzstan believes that meat prices have gone up in the country because of women exposing their thighs.

Award-winning Imam Sadybakas Doolov blamed women for the inflating prices of meat saying that women cheapen themselves when they choose to show bare skin, OpIndia reported.

In the capital city of Bishkek, he said: “Do you know when meat prices go up in your town? They go up when women’s flesh cheapens."

He added that women became cheap after they "exposed their thighs like a thumb.”

The cleric, 53, has also served as the president of an Islamic university. In his lecture, he encouraged men to prohibit women from wearing short dressing. 

His remarks caused an outcry countrywide with some people accusing him of discriminating against women. Others asked for a criminal investigation against him.

Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (DUMK) investigated the Imam's comments and concluded that his words did not breach any Islamic rules nor were they disrespectful.

DMUK said that his remarks were misinterpreted.

Muslim-majority Krgystan's highest Islamic authority has defended Doolov.

Doolov defended himself by saying that people had misconstrued him after taking a few statements out of his 30-minute-lecture out of context.

He added that he did not intend to demean women. However, many in the country have called him a chauvinist.