Muslim Women in US Protest Segregation in Mosque

[GoFlyKiteNow]

March 08, 2010

Muslim Women in US Protest Segregation in Mosque

Washington. A group of Muslim women risked arrest on Sunday as they sought to pray in the main area of the Islamic Center of Washington — an area ordinarily reserved exclusively for men.

“Wooden barriers have to be taken down and women have to be allowed to join, to pray behind the men in the main praying area. That’s our request,” said Fatima Thompson, an American Muslim who converted to the faith 18 years ago.

“We are against gender segregation, against the fact that women are put aside or in a totally different room at the mosque,” added Thompson, who led the group of female protestors, all self-identified progressive Muslims.

The Sunday protest was the second time women have sought to share the main prayer area at the mosque in Washington DC, after a group of 20 women first tried in February.

“The general issue we are pushing is gender segregation and the ramifications it fosters. It’s not healthy, and not reflective of our society here. It’s very reflective of very restrictive, ultra orthodox societies,” Thompson added.

Their hair covered with head scarves, the group of six women entered the mosque’s prayer area via the main door usually reserved for men and walked through to the room where around 20 men had already arrived.

Women and children ordinarily enter the Washington mosque, located in the city’s embassy district, through a small door hidden behind a screen.

“If you are black in this country they can’t tell you to sit in a corner but if you are a woman they can,” said Asra Nomani, a Muslim feminist who has participated in similar protests elsewhere in the United States.

The imam presiding over the prayer interrupted proceedings to announce by microphone: “We are going to wait, because some people came to disturb the prayer, until the police come and take care of this issue.”

Within minutes, three police officers arrived and told the women to leave or face arrest.

“In Indonesia where I’m from, it’s not the way we pray,” said one woman, who declined to give her name, of the segregated prayer setup.

“I want to make them think about it and make some change,” she added.

“We may not get to see that in our lifetime but we do that for our daughters,” said Jannah Hannah, who converted to Islam 25 years ago and said she would continue to fight for shared prayer space.

The group of women agreed to leave the mosque, but performed their prayers on the street outside, facing the metal gates of the building as police looked on.

 

[GoFlyKiteNow]

United States Muslims Debating the Use of English in Mosques

Sana Rahim was born in the cowboy country of southeastern Wyoming to Pakistani parents who had emigrated so her father could earn a doctorate.

She speaks Urdu with her family, but cannot read or write the language. She recites prayers in Arabic, but does not know exactly what each word means.

Now a 20-year-old junior at Northwestern University, she, like many other American-born Muslims, is most comfortable with sermons and lectures in English, although they cannot always find US mosques that offer them.

“I don’t really get the time to study Arabic,’’ Rahim said. “With all the different groups in America, English is a unifying thing that ties us together.”

Like Jewish immigrants who fought over English-language prayer and Roman Catholics who resisted the new Mass in English, US Muslims are waging their own debate about how much English they can use inside mosques without violating Islamic law and abandoning their heritage.

The issue is part of a broader discussion within the Muslim community about young US Muslims and their alienation from American mosques. Houses of worship founded by older immigrant Muslims often held fast to the culture and language of their native countries. For them, English in the mosque threatened Muslim identity. Most of their American-born children, however, cannot relate.

“This is a constant problem talked about — young people in mosques,’’ said Shahed Amanullah, co-founder of salatomatic.com, which lists thousands of mosques and reviews from users. “It’s not just about the Friday prayers. It’s the response that mosques have to the cultural reality of growing up Muslim in America. If young people don’t find what they need in the mosque, they’ll find it on the Internet.”