Masjid prayer areas for women are frequently criticized as shockingly unequal from men’s.  Over at altmuslimah, Sarrah Abulughod eloquently writes about women’s place in the masjid:

When speaking to the multitude of women who complain about the accommodations and treatment they receive in the mosque, one common thread runs through their criticisms. They want a decent, clean, quiet space to reflect on their Lord, a space that does not pose a barrier to education or ideas, just as the male worshipers enjoy. Yes, some prefer a separate space altogether and we’re not discounting those among us who do, but regardless of whether the women’s prayer room is separate or not, the second-class nature of the back door, the dingy basement room, or the cluttered storage hall will not do any longer.

Over at The Daily Beast, Asra Nomani relates the D.C. pray-in this year to her own struggle for receiving a better prayer space:

What unfolded that day inside the mosque underscores a growing agitation inside the American-Muslim community by women frustrated by separate-and-unequal status. A survey by the Council on American Islamic Relations showed that two of three mosques in 2000 required women to pray in a separate area, up from one of two in 1994. In 2003, I challenged rules at my mosque in Morgantown, West Virginia, that women enter through a back door and pray in a secluded balcony….The men at my mosque put me on trial to be banished.

In addition to the blog posts, the event was also picked up by news outlets.  In an Associated Press article, the women who participated in the pray-in are portrayed as revolutionaries, having “risked arrest by praying in the main hall.”  The article includes an assertion from one of the protesters, Jannah bint Hannah, who proclaims that she feels like a “second-class citizen.”  Surprisingly, the brief article does not include any comments from representatives of the actual Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. and instead attributes an explanation for the segregation to an imam from an entirely different institution.

The Washington Post also covered the event, which it portrays as one in a long line of reform efforts led by “Muslim activists” and elaborates on the “discrimination” Muslim women face in masjids:

Thompson’s protest at the stately mosque along Embassy Row is the latest effort by Muslim activists to reform conditions in U.S. mosques that they say are discriminatory and degrading to women. Muslim prayers are typically led by male imams. Behind them are rows of men, and behind them rows of women and children.

The interest in this news event highlights the overwhelming interest in how Muslim women are treated unequally in Islam, while also bringing to the public’s attention what Muslim communities have been unable (or unwilling) to address on their own.  How often do we hear how Muslim women are subjugated by their religion at the hands of men?

But the coverage here also shows that Muslim women (and not non-Muslims) are asserting their views in what has traditionally been a male-dominated place.  More importantly, Muslim women are voicing their silenced concerns for everyone—not only the Muslim community—to hear as a means to effect change.

Reading Fatemeh’s post on Asra Nomani’s documentary that aired on PBS Monday evening as well Alicia’s post on the Sisters in Islam opposition and the struggles of Islamic feminists in Malaysia made me think once more authority in Islam. I believe that rethinking and challenging authority is at the heart of the recent wave of Islamic feminism that we have seen around the world. Muslim women the world over are challenging forms of authority that have often had a male face and used a patriarchal reading of Islamic texts (Qur’an and hadith literature) to justify gender oppression.  They also using traditional forms of authority, such as Islamic texts, to overcome gender oppression, bring about gender equality and create a feminism that has Islam as its heartbeat.

One of the most important tools in discussing, rethinking and challenging authority as it relates to Muslim women is the media (in this post, media will refer to the mainstream media as well as various forms of non-traditional media). As much as I have been critical of the mainstream media’s coverage of Muslim women in general, I cannot deny that it has allowed traditional authorities in the Muslim community (‘ulamah, imams, mosque boards composed mostly or entirely by men, etc.) to be challenged on their interpretation of women’s rights. The ummah has been forced to grapple with issues ranging from masjid accommodations for women and mixed gender salat to domestic violence and the texts traditionally used to justify it because the mainstream media has covered these issues.

When the media covers an event like Amina Wadud leading a mixed gender prayer, it does have the effect of making Muslims discuss women’s place in mosques. I remember when that event occurred and hearing so many Muslims say things like “Even if I don’t think women should lead salat, I wonder what the conditions are in masjids that would make her do that?” or “I don’t think women should lead salat but the accommodations for women in masajid leave a lot to be desired.”

Additionally, it did make a lot of scholars look at the place of women in masjids. While most may not have taken the position that women can lead the prayer, it did make a lot of them reaffirm women’s right to even be in a masjid and women’s to have equal access to masjids, something that was and still is sorely lacking in masjids around the world, the U.S. included. Watching Asra Nomani’s documentary on Monday evening, I admit that I was thoroughly disgusted with her tactics and confrontational style, but I also had to admit that in some way, her constant use of the media for her cause (which was vague, I admit) did make Muslims in her community think about their leadership and the role of women in the masjid in Morgantown.

This is just one example of the use of the mainstream media in challenging and reshaping authority. Non-traditional media has allowed Muslims to challenge authoritative views of women in Islam. From websites dedicated to moderate and progressive views to blogs like MMW, non-traditional media has provided a platform for Muslims to discuss traditionally authoritative views about Muslim women and to challenge them. Non-traditional media has made it easier for Muslims to discuss what Islamic texts say about women, whether we even want to accept certain texts that have traditionally been held as authoritative and more importantly, who has the authority to interpret those texts and who should have the authority to interpret those texts. We can now discuss issues like hadith literature typically used to oppress women, question them and even reject them on a much more massive scale. Non-traditional media has, for better or for worse, made it much easier for lay Muslim to challenge and even reject authority

The media will continue to play a vital role in the fight for Muslim women’s rights. One of the most important ways the media will achieve this is by encouraging Muslims to look at Islamic texts as well as those who interpret them. It will make those who interpret the texts and who do hold authority more beholden to lay Muslims; that is a good thing.

Journalist Christopher Landau begins his article by telling us,

The role that women play in mosques varies substantially around the Muslim world. Visits to two mosques in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, show just how different women’s experiences can be.

The article looks at one mosque in an affluent suburb of Cairo, and another in a poorer part of the city.  The first mosque has a strong children’s program run by a large and very active team of women volunteers.  (Although he specifies that the children he sees are boys, the writer does not mention whether there are also programs for girls.  I’m assuming that girls are involved too, but I thought this was an interesting omission.)  He interviews a woman in charge of running the educational programs, who envisions an even greater leadership role for women in the future.  At the second mosque, Landau remarks that there is only one woman involved in its leadership, largely because many of the women in that poorer area do not have time to volunteer.  He also interviews a retired scholar from al-Azhar who affirms the importance of women having access to the mosque.*

The role of economic class in the opportunities for women within each of the mosques is clear:

The disparity between the two mosques I visited is striking.

In one, women play an active role and dream even of running those activities still the preserve of men – perhaps, one day, even leading prayers.**

In the other, one sole woman tries to run women’s activities, but in an area where there is little tradition of women being involved in their local mosque.

Some of the factors seem to be financial: Al-Seddeeq’s volunteers are women who are wealthy enough to be able to choose to spend time at the mosque rather than needing to work; in the crowded streets of Old Cairo, few women have such an opportunity.

This acknowledgement of the ways that multiple forms of oppression can interlock with each other – that gender oppression can happen through, and be compounded by, oppression rooted in class – is a rare insight in many media articles.  It was really refreshing to read an explanation for low female participation was was not solely attributed to inherently oppressive religious structures.  Even within one city, the mosques, the Muslims, and the Muslim women are all seen as diverse, and in societies that are changing.  The history of male dominance in Islam is discussed only in the context of that being a history that all religions share.  (I would have preferred it if he said something like “Islamic structures” or “Islamic institutions,” but the point is the same.)

In fact, this article followed most of the rules that Sobia and I wrote about in our post on How to Write about Muslims.  Muslim women are understood to have agency, and not to need saving by someone else.  Landau talks to Muslim women and to a qualified scholar.  He acknowledges that there is diversity within Muslim communities, that the cultures are always changing, and that religion is not the only factor at play in Muslim women’s lives.  And there’s not one mention of a headscarf!  It’s not to say the article is perfect (and I don’t know enough about the communities he’s writing about to comment on his accuracy there), but I thought this was a good example of how we can talk about inequalities within Muslim communities without simplifying the context or the causes.

* I was surprised to see the scholar say that women are “commanded” to go to the mosque, and I would be interested in more background on that.  Most scholars I’ve seen say that, while all Muslims are commanded to pray five times a day, going to the mosque is not emphasized for women the way it is for men.  I’m not sure whether this scholar meant that men and women face exactly the same requirements about attending mosques, or whether it was more generally that women should be part of the mosque community.

** Regarding leading prayers, it wasn’t clear to me that this was one of the areas of leadership that the woman interviewed in the affluent mosque was aiming for.  Although she did say that “I think women can do what men do. Some roles, it’s better for women than men,” the idea of a woman leading prayer still comes across as radical in most communities, unless the woman is only leading other women.  It is possible that the speaker (or some of her peers at that mosque) did indeed hope for a woman to one day be able to lead prayers in that mosque, but my own feeling was that this might have been the journalist’s extrapolation, and might not have reflected the actual goals of the women in that mosque.