By What do you think we can do in our co-ed mosques right now to make the environment more welcoming, or more inclusive towards Muslim women?
I think the first step is awareness. I tell a particular story, whenever I talk about this issue during my halaqas, about when I was sitting in a mosque and this Imam got up and started giving a speech.
This mosque, by the way, was the best of the worst. I drive out to this mosque that’s 30 minutes from my house, and the reason it’s the best of the worst is because they converted a tiny little office space on the ground floor so I can actually hear and see the Imam in a distance, unlike the mosque closest to me, where I would pray towards a bathroom and there was no audio system or TV, so you have no idea what raka’ah you’re on.
So, I drive out to this mosque that’s 30 minutes away, and the Imam got up and said,
“Look around you. Could you imagine if we said, at this mosque, all black people have to enter through the side? Or we said all Pakistanis had to sit in the back? “
And then I got really excited. I sat up in my seat thinking, “Oh my god. He’s about to start talking about the state of Muslim women. This is a such a courageous man. I love him!”
You know? And so I was listening, all ears, and waiting for him to make that transition, and he never did. He just kept talking about race relations in the mosque and in the ummah, and that experience really helped me come to a realization.
I was sitting there and I was really thinking “Wow, how ironic. He doesn’t get it.” I realized the reason he doesn’t see the irony in this situation, is because he doesn’t see me. And so whenever I tell that story to Muslim men, they all say, “I never realized this was going on.”
And of course, how could they see? The come in to the mosque straight from work, and go back right after. So they don’t focus on what’s going around them. And if they don’t see the Muslim women, they don’t know what we go through.
So the first step is awareness, and alhamduliah, I’m really grateful for this conversation that’s started to happen in our community and I hope it grows.
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Images from ABC News and Al Jazeera [Feature Photo taken by Diana Crandall]
Did I already told you I love you?
End of feminism
End horny toad patriarchalism.
*slow clap*
Eight ball tells me homosexuals and trans will be welcome in this mosque.
They are welcomed in all mosques anyway, ignoramus. Except yours.
um there isn’t any such thing in the sun ah of a gender exclusive masjid. this women’s mosque is not from the sunnah so I’m not sure about its status under Islamic law. the masjid is the house of Allah. there is no such thing as a masjid for women or a masjid for men. Jumuah is lead by the imam, women do not lead the jumuah lecture or the salaat( yes I know what she said in the article). This is an innovation in the religion, and the prophet (pbuh) clearly stated that every innovation is in the fire.
sisters I urge you to abandon this bidah. if it bothers you to have s divider in the masjid go to a mosque where there isn’t one. The religion is complete please don’t do things not done by the best of the people the Sahabah.
This is the Mosque that does not have a divider. Go to this one, ladies. A hundred thousand innovations and you are cherry picking on this one alone? Ignoramus. Define complete.
Ignoramus. Define complete.
AsSalaamu Aalikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. I love the idea of empowering women. Many men in this ummah have forgotten or even don’t realize
that women are the heart of this society. I feel that women having a place to
learn their deen in a space they feel welcomed is awesome. The question I have is does this place have to be an all womens masjid? I too have been
displaced from the men to pray jummah. They put me next to a garbage can in a
secular activity center’s kitchen. Our masjid was in its grass roots phase and
they did not want women to come to the jummah prayer. There was almost no men
there and I was far in the back. It left me feeling even more isolated than I
already was, being a new convert. I always say Alhamdulillah Allah has shown me
Islam before He showed me the Muslims or else I would not have converted. The way this deen have become segmented is baffling. Be reminded that Rasullulah (saw) warned us of divisions. He also said do not prevent your women from coming to the masjid. This all women masjid is only creating more division in an already divided community. If this sister took the money that she raised for this women’s masjid and made additions to an existing one, would that help her plight? Having halaqa’s and having woman scholars toteach Islamic and Arabic studies can be a start. I don’t think you had to build a whole new masjid to have a place for women. Allah will not change a people until they change what is within themselves. Women have lost their way. We don’t know our place in this society and want to imitate non-believers to ourdetriment. Yes women in the time of the Prophet (saw) were teachers and leaders but they respected the boundaries in this deen. We need to go back to basics, learn what is accepted and expected of us as muslimahs and then maybe we can start a real dialogue to be heard and respected. May Allah forgive us and guide us, Ameen.
“women don’t know their place in society.”
I stopped reading from there.
Women have been marginalised, objectified and ignored even with many cries to end segregation and when they finally have a mosque of their own for their own issues it is suddenly strayed.
I have personally experienced something similar in the mosque. When they were donating for islamic education for someone, to men they said “Please donate, shukraan” but to women “please donate sisters, we know you love clothing and makeup but this is for the better” um wow, excuse me? They are using women’s money to keep on pushing them back. heck even the first university, which was created by a muslim woman, is now dominated by males and women cant enter anymore.
This is what happens
also women’s mosque isnt new. Chinese muslim communities have them everywhere and theyre fine. no fatwa or bullshit innovation said by male scholars.