The amount of space afforded to women in Islam has long been a topic of debate. Traditionally, men lead prayers at home and outside. Men raise the call to prayer, preach during sermons, and take up more space in mosques. There are far less female imams, and women typically pray in separate, more modest quarters allocated to them.
By Zafirah Zein
The amount of
space afforded to women in Islam has long been a topic of debate.
Traditionally, men lead prayers at home and outside. Men raise the call to
prayer, preach during sermons, and take up more space in mosques. There are far
less female imams, and women typically pray in separate, more modest quarters
allocated to them.
Image Attribute: Women
participate in peaceful protest in Taksim Square, Istanbul. Turkey.
In 2011,
Istanbul's former deputy mufti, or Muslim jurist expert Kadriye Avci Erdemli
implemented the "Beautification of Mosques for Women" campaign, which
strove to improve the facilities and conditions of women-designated areas in
the city's mosques. In a city that is home to more than 3,000 mosques,
including a few of the world’s most majestic, Erdemli had found that many
betrayed Islam's message of equality in spaces of worship. While men are more
obliged to attend mosques within Islamic tradition, the conditions of female
spaces in Istanbul were turning away women from visiting these sacred places at
all.
Inspections
under the campaign revealed that many mosques lacked female toilets, and that
the areas reserved for women were either unkempt or used for storage purposes.
The walls and curtains that carve out these spaces also limited the view women
had of the mosque from where they were situated—at the back.
Under Erdemli,
massive clean-ups and structural changes ensued, and imams were advised to
educate their congregations on the roles of women in mosques. At an event
co-hosted by Women in Islam, Inc and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) to the United Nations held last year, Erdemli said that there was a rise
in women's attendance in mosques by 70 percent as a result of the campaign.1
Turkey has also
made other strides aimed at greater inclusion and gender equality in its
religious spaces. Sakirin Mosque in the conservative area of Uskudar is the
first in the country to be designed by a woman. Zeynep Fadillioglu and other
female artists oversaw the construction of Sakirin, where women now pray on its
second-floor balcony. From this location, women are granted an unobstructed
view of the dome, chandelier, and the area below where the imam leads prayers.
At the mosque's inauguration in 2009, Emine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, "This art is the proof that there is no
distance between women and mosque in Islam."2
While Turkey has
tackled this issue by enhancing the spaces allocated to women, women in other
parts of the world are taking matters into their own hands. In January 2015,
the first women-only mosque opened in the United States. Located in Los
Angeles, the Women's Mosque of America was founded by two women who sought to
improve the place of Muslim women who are often relegated to second-class
status in their communities.
In China, the
women of the country's minority Hui Muslim community have been symbols of
female leadership and empowerment for over 300 years.Nusis are women-run
mosques that cropped up in Hui Muslim enclaves in China due to the scarcity of
male Islamic teachers. In order to preserve their faith from getting usurped by
the majority Han culture, the community encouraged their women to promote
Islamic education among their young. What started out as Quranic schools for
girls transformed into mosques run solely by women, with female imams spreading
Islamic education, leading prayers, and delivering sermons.
While these
independent female spaces represent a positive anomaly in Islam's status quo,
the struggle remains for women fighting for space within areas where men have
traditionally dominated. Islamic scholars diverge on whether women are allowed
to pray in the same space alongside men, and whether they are allowed to lead
mixed congregations.
When asked what
she thought of gendered spaces in mosques, one 23-year-old Turkish woman, named
Cansu, said, "Women and men need their own space. The issue is not the
segregation of space, but of equal rights. Women should have the same amount of
area and facilities in the mosque as [men]. Most mosques in Istanbul don’t have
this."
On March 18, in
honor of International Women’s Day, Amina Wadud, a well-known American Islamic
scholar and author of Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s
Perspective, led a mixed congregation in a Fridayjum'ah prayer. As the imam,
she delivered the sermon and led more than one hundred men and women in prayer.
Although it was not the first time a woman was the head of a mixed gender
congregation, it was the first to gain international attention. While some
hailed it as a revolutionary, groundbreaking step towards representing Islam's
egalitarian message, others condemned the defying of Islamic tradition. The
event even received bomb threats and was finally held in an inclusive church in
Manhattan.
Journalist and
activist, Asra Nomani who specializes in Muslim reform and Islamic feminist
movements, was the primary organizer of the March 2015 event. She raised the
call to prayer without donning the headscarf, earning criticism for her methods
of promoting gender equality and encouraging mixed gender prayer worldwide.
In a blog post
in 2010, well-known Islamic spiritual speaker and author Yasmin Mogahed
responded to women-led prayer by stating, "For 1,400 years, there has been
a consensus of the scholars that men are to lead prayer. As a Muslim woman, why
does this matter? The one who leads prayer is not spiritually superior in any
way. Something is not better just because a man does it. And leading prayer is
not better, just because it's leading."3
Cansu's friend,
Sena, 21, had a similar viewpoint. "I think for your concentration during
prayer, it's important for men and women to have their own space. According to
my religion and opinion, women and men are different. Women are more emotional,
and we need to be protected. There are different roles and I have no problem
with men being in front of me in prayer."
The issue of
women's space and rights in Islam has hence stirred debate between different
Muslim circles. The tension between what is perceived as Western feminism and
Islamic feminism, as well as between conservatives and liberals, is a thread
that runs through various issues on the minds of today's Muslim societies.
It is worth
recognizing, however, the steps taken in respect of women and their empowerment,
such as the beautification of mosques campaign in Turkey and the women's
mosques of China’s Hui.
About The Author:
Zafirah Zein is
a fourth-year student at Northeastern University in Boston, where she is
studying Journalism and International Affairs with a concentration in Middle
East Studies. Her dream is to become a Middle East foreign correspondent and,
she is excited to be reporting for the Fuller Project for International
Reporting in Istanbul, Turkey. She has previously worked for Inter Press
Service in New York and interned in humanitarian development in India.
Publication Details:
This article was
originally published at Solutions Journal under Creative Commons-Share Alike
license.
References
Hassan, M. and
S. Sayeed. Women in Islam, Inc and the OIC Mission to the UN Co-host an All-day
Event Aimed at Breaking Down Gender Barriers in the Mosque. Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation [online]
(2014)
Wrathall, C.
Istanbul: Beauties of Byzantium. Harper’s Bazaar [online]
(2015)
Mogahed, Y. A
Woman’s Reflection on Leading Prayer. YasminMogahed.com [online] (2010)
