A very important issue concerning women and the Muslim community that has been troubling me for years. Women were a visible part of the worshipping society during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammed (alaihissalaatu wassalam), they had direct access to the Prophet and the Sahabah, to the masaajids where they prayed in rows behind men, easy and direct access to Khutbahs and other public speeches, access to grievance redressal and so on and so forth where women were treated as equal members of the society, the way Islam meant it for them. Today women are not treated equally, they are being being shut out by the men in their own communities. For instance, despite living in an Islamic country in the Middle-East, I simply cannot approach an imaam for genuine reasons like women could centuries ago. The female prayer areas are isolated or ignored in some masaajid - sometimes speakers dont work and its hard to follow salaatul Jamaah with the imam, sometimes there is no air-conditioning and females are forced to pray in the hot humid heat, sometimes there is no water or lights in the female toilets; and all the while male prayer facilities are maintained in tip-top shape! Plenty of times I had to delay prayers while my spouse prayed, for lack of wodhu facilties for women; there are many masaajid that may offer prayer spaces for women but no ablution areas or toilets! As for any woman who has travelled to India - missing prayers at their prescribed times is unavoidable when one is outside ones home. Most masaajid in India simply do not accommodate women worshippers! And most of the very few ones that do, provide a small space in some far corner but provide no ablution facilities, which is very sad indeed. Even in developed countries such as the UK, where the Western Christian governments have generously opened their hearts and minds to Muslims and given them spaces to build masaajid and worship in, how truly disappointing and prejudiced of the Muslim preachers of these masaajid to not show the same generosity of hearts of their non-Muslim counterparts to embrace their own sisters in faith! Proof that a developed nation does not translate to men being of developed minds too. All the Muslim women I speak to, either pray seated on chairs in public places like bus-stations, or miss their prayers until they reach home. If this is how Muslim women are in developed nations, what is their plight elsewhere? Muslim men in charge of such masaajid ought to realize that they will be answerable to Allah for preferring one gender over the other while ignoring the needs of female worshippers and encouraging segregation in a way that is making them invisible within the society and denying access to opportunities for their spiritual growth. Alhamdulillah I saw this video today which gives me hope that there are some Muslim scholars who are addressing this issue. Both women and men need to make themselves be heard to prevent the oppression of women by their own men.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 23:28:36 +0000
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