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, a US 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.
PHOTO: AFP
The Sunday protest was the second time women have sought to share the main prayer area at the mosque in Washington after a group of twenty women first tried last month.
“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 said.
Their hair covered with headscarves, 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.
SMALL DOOR
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 US.
The imam presiding over the prayer interrupted proceedings to make an announcement 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,” he said.
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’m shocked,” added the woman, who sobbed, she said, because she felt so humiliated.
“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 a quarter of a century 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.
The mosque’s imam, who declined to give his name, criticized the group as “people who come and don’t respect the law.”
‘DISGUSTING’
“It’s disgusting,” added a man as he left the mosque. “If they are Muslims they have to follow the rules.”
“Build your own mosque,” another man told the women.
After a brief exchange at the mosque’s exit, one man seemed to have a change of heart.
“Traditions control Islam at the moment, and that’s not the same as Islam,” said Bachir Kardoussi, a lecturer in comparative religion at the University of Constantine.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS