22 February 2010

About 20 women insisted on praying in the main hall at the Islamic Center of Washington DC.

Mosque officials called D.C. police over the weekend to stop the protest. Police told the women to leave or they would be arrested.

Jannah B’int Hannah says “she feels like a second-class citizen” when she is asked to pray in a separate room where she cannot see the imam. She was among the women who protested the policy.

The women’s prayer area is a separate, smaller room separated from the main prayer hall by a seven-foot wall. Hannah describes the room as “boxed in, stifling, suffocating – and totally a second class citizen.”

Syed Burmi, the imam of the Islamic Society of Western Maryland, says the physical separation of men and women helps maintain a focus on prayer. He says it also protects women’s privacy and modesty.

“If I stand next to a lady, or a woman stands next to me, maybe the focus will change and no longer be on God the Almighty. So that’s why we put the partition,” Burmi explained.

Asra Nomani, an Islamic feminist, counters that Muslim women are encouraged to rise to the highest levels of society and do not want to be second class in the mosque.

Women activists say they will continue to try to pray in the main hall until this policy changes.

Sources:

“Muslim women protest separation at DC mosque” News OK February 22, 2010

Kavitha Cardoza, “Muslim Women Protest Policies At Islamic Center” NBC Washington February 22, 2010