Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque

[BaysideLiberal]

he last time Nasreen Aboobaker attended communal prayers with other Muslims was on the major holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The local mosque in Fremont, Calif., had rented space in a nearby Hilton Hotel to accommodate the crowd. As the men congregated in the spacious ballroom, Mrs. Aboobaker said she and the other women were ushered into a small conference room and told to follow along with the prayers piped in from the men's space.

After the women waited about an hour for the prayers to begin, the door to their room flew open and husbands arrived to take their wives home. "We did not even know the prayer had ended," said Mrs. Aboobaker, explaining that the sound system had failed. "We were locked up like sheep and cows."

Since that incident last November, Mrs. Aboobaker prays only at home, shunning the segregated mosque. But she is not the only Muslim woman who is beginning to bridle at the men's club culture of many American mosques. Gradually and with mixed success, a small number of Muslim women are challenging the lack of inclusion of women in worship and communal life. In Morgantown, W. Va.; Prince George's County, Md., and the San Francisco Bay Area, women have pushed to remove partitions or walls - or simply the rules - that prevent women worshipers from seeing or hearing the imam.

http://www.masnet.org/articleinterest.asp?id=1446

read the article to appreciate the dilemma

[LittleApple81]

1. I don't like any organized religion created by men. If women who are

educated and can read submit themselves to this (this is America, where you still have access to education and information) they have no sympathy from me. I am sorry.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

2. So your solution is they should just leave Islam?

They aren't "submitting" themselves to it. That's the point. They are trying to make changes. And from what I read in the article, they are succeeding in some important ways.

Should women never bother trying to find an equal place in institutions "created by men"? Not in any private military academy that doesn't want women? Not in a country club or public service organization that discriminates? I guess that would certainly make things easier on the men.

[LittleApple81]

10. No. I am not recommending anything to them. I just have no sympathy.

And I didn't mention just generic institutions. I mentioned religion. That is one type of institution that I don't bother with. I don't want to belong, I don't want them to bother me, I don't want to bother them... as far as I am concerned they don't provide ME with anything I want.
Other institutions are worth for ME to try to belong to or fight for admittance. But not a religion. And this is my personal opinion.

And that they don't have my sympathy doesn't mean they should not fight.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

12. Well, I have no desire to attend a private military academy.

And it's difficult for me to understand why any woman would want to attend a school like VMS, for example. But I respect that it holds some deep importance for them, and I sympathize with their plight to be admitted (I realize the issues aren't 100% comparable, but it's close enough).

[goddess40]

13. actually yes they should, religion isn't' negotiable

But the Catholic church doesn't recognize women as equals either. (I was rasied in the Catholic church so I know first hand)
Most religions are different than other organizations, members don't get a say in how things are run. So you have a choice be a second class member ( or the flip side, be a member of the "first class" and look down on the second class members) or getting out.
Although I'm an atheist I don't think people have to stop believing in a god they just need to be more real about it.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. its a shame people have to have religion so tatooed into their being

That they can't leave a religion that obviously has no respect for them.

[pocket]

4. they can't leave

under pain of death. Apostacy is a capital crime under sharia.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

8. That's ridiculous.

A Muslim woman in the U.S. (or another country that protects basic rights) can't leave her religion because she'll be killed? The Bible has stuff about stoning people as well, but I don't hear anyone saying that a Christian "can't" commit some sin because they'll be killed if they do.

[pocket]

9. they are less likely to be killed here in the US than the M.E.

but honor killings do happen here and in western Europe.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

11. yes, they happen

Everything happens sometime, somewhere. But I wouldn't stretch that to say that Muslim women can't leave Islam for fear of being killed. In my experience, too many DUers have a very ignorant and negative view of Islam. I don't know that much about Islam myself, but at least I don't make such gross generalizations as some people. (I'm not directing this at you. I have seen many threads where this happens, and I'm just frustrated.)

I am well aware that there are countries where Islam is the predominant of governmental religion where women have hard lives and few rights. But there are many Muslim women across the world who are educated, have jobs, have freedom, have the choice not to wear restrictive clothing, etc. And these are not just U.S. and Western European countries where non-Muslims have enforced these freedoms. There are predominantly Muslim parts of the world where women are more liberated than I think many people realize.

[icymist]

5. Lyrics from an old Patti Smith song '25th floor' come to mind....

"Keys to the Men's Room.
we don't give a shit.
Ladies lost electricty;
take vows inside of it."

[Gin]

6. yep...I used to be catholic...then I woke up. ..and thought....why would

I want to stay in a religion that thinks females are second class citizens?

[theHandpuppet]

7. I was about to make that same point...

... but you beat me to it. :) Islam isn't the only religion that treats women as second class citizens -- those come in all frocks.

[BaysideLiberal]

14. kick

kick