Comments on: British Mosques: Community Hubs or Exclusive Prayer Clubs?

By: nazeem davids

nazeem davids — Sat, 14 May 2011 06:41:44 +0000

im sorry if im going to offend some but the exclusive mens mosques in the UK stems partly from chauvanism and partly from an Indo-pak mentality. i have experience in attending mosques in the uk and i, as a south african, was surprised at the sectarian division among muslims and their different attitudes (mostly negative) towards women wanting to attend mosque. There were of course exceptions especially the one in Leyton where women were afforded equal access. In South Africa it is the women who are the drivers of fundraising for mosques and they have good to excellent access including lots and lots of madressa classes run by and for women. Momen alims are also now part of the muslim judicial council. The UK needs to catch up.

By: Sajda Malik

Sajda Malik — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:01:09 +0000

I want to know why women are not members in mosques

By: Khadijeh Ahmadi

Khadijeh Ahmadi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:33:57 +0000

A very interesting prespective. I must say however that fortunetly for me the mosques that I have attended cater remarkably well for woman and woman play a dominant role in their programs. However as you mentioned I realise that the majority of mosques do not have facilities for woman.
I would further like to add, that we should be extremely greatful that we are allowed to have mosques in the first place. I travelled to Morroco recently and realised that throughout my time there I did not come across one mosque and this is in a Muslim country. Furthermore I never heard the azan. Instead i saw more clubs than minarets. It was truly dissapointing. Which it why it came to my attention that we should be really greatfull.
Despite this I agree that woman particpation in mosques should be the way forward.

By: Salman Al-Azami

Salman Al-Azami — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:22:13 +0000

I completely agree. I have experience in working with Mosques where I was told that in some Mosques, even talking about women participation is a taboo. Whatever these people are trying to do, they are certainly not following the Prophet’s way. We need to make these brothers understand that our Mosques should be inclusive, not exclusive.

By: Tijen Zahide Horoz

Tijen Zahide Horoz — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:02:26 +0000

I love this article.I think it highlights a really important issue.I think a lot of women feel uncomfortable or out of place going to worship at a mosque, rather than just in their homes and yet there is nothing in our religion that forbids it.We seriously need to address this culture of male exculsivity that seems to dogg Islamic societies across the world

By: Opiya

Opiya — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:46:47 +0000

Excellent post! We certainly need to work towards building our mosques to be the holistic, all-inclusive community centres that God intended them to be. I hope we can work to realise that, inshaAllah.