Part One: Time to End Gender Segregation in Mosques

AltMuslimah has begun a series of reporting into the Gender Issue and Masjids, the article lists the experiences of several Muslim Women illustateing their treatment during Mosque visits and the conditions for Women in Mosques today.

The article presents excerps of Womens blogs on various online magazines and forums.

Taken from an article in “Islam for Today,” shows the discriminatory setting that Muslim women experience in mosques:

…[A]mong those mosques that do let women in, I’m sorry to say that most of the ones I have seen relegate the women to an inferior status. They banish them to basement rooms or other segregated spaces. Too often the second-class spaces allotted to the women are poorly maintained, uncomfortable, cramped, filthy, or otherwise substandard, while the men reserve the best areas for their exclusive use. This kind of treatment makes the preaching about women’s status being equal in Islam sound awfully hollow. Too many places don’t allow women any chance to speak and be heard, let alone have any say in the way the mosque is run.

AltMuslimah goes onto write, apart from diminishing her daily experience at the mosque, gender segregation affects a Muslim woman’s spiritual experience on important Islamic events and holidays.

Krista Riley, a Muslim feminist and contributing writer of Muslimah Media Watch, shares her experience:

On the 27th night of Ramadan – the night most widely believed to be Laylat-ul-Qadr, the Night of Power – I went to the mosque for tarawih prayers. This experience, of praying together on this special night as the Qur’an is completed, is a beautiful and powerful one. At least, so I am told.

What happened in reality is that the women’s section, far too small to fit all of the women who had come that evening, was crowded and uncomfortable. I ended up having to pray close to the elevator, on the marble floor; I had people walking around and in front of me all evening.

On top of that, it was NOISY. Several families had brought their small children, who were all sent up to the women’s section, and who were yelling, crying, and even running around at various points throughout the prayer.

While I could hear the emotion in the Imam’s voice as he recited, I could barely focus on his words, because of all of the noise and activity around me. When the prayer was over, I could not get out of that mosque fast enough. It was, without a doubt, the most stressful prayer experience I have ever had. Far from being inspired, I was annoyed, agitated, and more than a little bitter.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE