It’s almost like they’re living in the 7th century.

(Telegraph) — Muslim women have been banned from traveling more than 48 miles from their homes without being chaperoned by a male relative, according to a fatwa issued by one of Islam’s leading universities.

The ruling was made by the Darul Uloom Deoband, the leading Islamic university founded in northern India in 1866, which has millions of followers from Bangladesh and Pakistan to Muslim communities in Britain.

Its fatwa was issued after a female follower had asked: “Is a married woman permitted to travel to another country with her female sibling?”

In a reply on the Deoband website, she was told:”She cannot travel without a ‘mehram’ [male relative]. It’s mentioned in the Hadees that a woman should not travel for more than 48 miles except in the company of a ‘mehram’ relative.”

Its response, which was delivered on International Women’s Day, provoked anger among Muslim women activists who said it was based on conditions in the Arabian peninsula more than 1,400 years ago and no longer relevant in the modern world.

Its ruling was based on the Hadiths — the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad during his lifetime. The 48 mile limit is believed to reflect the maximum distance one could then travel by camel or horse in one day through dangerous desert.