God knows no gender

During Prophet Mohammed’s time, women freely took part in religious services, as the overall traditions of the Holy Prophet point out. According to a hadith narrated by Hazrat Aisha, women even attended the early morning prayer, which was said at an hour so early that they returned to their houses while it was still dark (Bu. 8:13). Yet another hadith demonstrates that even women who had children to suckle would come to the mosque (Bu. 10:65). Again it is stated that when the Holy Prophet had finished his prayers, he used to stay a little longer in the mosque and did not rise until the women had left the mosque (Bu 10:152). Other hadith further demonstrate that the Holy Prophet had given orders not to prohibit women from going to mosque. For instance, there is one which quotes the Holy Prophet as saying: ‘‘Do not prohibit the handmaids of Allah from going to the mosques of Allah (Bu. 11:12). According to another, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said that if a woman wanted to go to mosque for night prayer, she should not be prohibited from doing so (Bu. 10:162). There was an express injunction that on the occasion of Id women should go out to the place where prayers were offered.

Historically, the practice of women to be present at the mosque at the time of prayer seems to have continued long enough after the Holy Prophet’s time. Within the mosque they formed a line behind the men (Bu. 10:164). On the occasion of the great gathering at Haj women pray alongside men (Bu. 25:23). Many hadith point out that they formed themselves into a back row in the mosque and the men retained their seats until the women left (M. 4:28). This practice seems to have existed for a very long time. It was only in the year 256 A.H. that the governor of Mecca is said to have tied ropes between the columns to make a separate space for women. Later on, the practice grew into erecting a wooden barrier in mosques to form a separate place for women.

The fact that women are restricted from offering prayers in mosques may be a result of cultural and patriarchal traditions.

The Kabah is the first mosque of the Muslims and there is no restriction on women to offer prayers within its precincts. Similarly men and women pray in separate enclosures at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. In almost all Muslim countries in the Middle East or Maghribi block or South Asia, women pray in mosques.

Imam Nasai reminds his readers that the Prophet said that saying one’s prayer in mosque is worth a thousand prayers said elsewhere, with the exception of the Kabah. He also adds that the best way to wash away sins is to go to mosque. On the basis of this he concluded that women cannot be restricted from offering prayers at mosque. Bohra women in India have been offering prayers at mosques for several years.

Recently the Tamil Nadu Muslim Women’s Jamat Committee started a movement to establish a separate mosque for women. Media reports state that there seems to be much pressure to dissuade such a call. M H Jawehirullah, president, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam even conceded that as a woman’s entry into a mosque was permissible and that 5 per cent of Tamil Nadu mosques already had separate enclosures, a separate woman’s mosque was undesirable. The domination of patriarchy eventually succeeded in denying women the required space. Why should women not get a space of their own to pray? Muslim women of the 21st century ask this question when the point is made clear that there is no such restriction regarding the same in the primary sources of Islam. The answer seems to lie in the fact that the restriction is not based in religion but in patriarchal traditions and myths woven around them.

The writer is Professor of Islamic Studies at St Xavier’s College