Muslim women to offer Friday prayers in masjids across 15 cities

Nagpur: Restricted to men over the years, a small group of 200 Muslim women would offer Friday prayers or Jumah Namaz at women-friendly masjids in Mumbai, Nagpur and 14 other cities across India on November 4.
The weekly congregation is compulsory for every practising Muslim. It comprises sermon and special prayer which makes it unique from the daily afternoon prayer ‘Zohar’. Lack of separate arrangements and prevailing male hegemony had kept women away from offering prayers in masjids for long.
The masjids identified as women-friendly have been profiled through the personal experiences of these women who engaged talks with the imams and management to allow them in since the last few years.
The initiative is planned under Muslim Women in Masjid project started by a collective Muslim Women Study Circle (MWSC) formed during the anti-CAA protest in 2019. The group aims to initiate, inspire and document women's prayer spaces in India.
MWSC has launched the campaign ‘Women in Masjid’ in Guwahati, Dimapur, Jamshedpur, Bengaluru, Saharanpur, Kolkata, Purnea, Agra, Berhampore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Srinagar and Aligarh beside Nagpur and Mumbai.
The group has prepared a catalog of women friendly masjids in these cities.
Tuba Sanober, a law student and program manager of the project for MWSC, said many masjids already have special arrangement for women to offer prayers on all days and anytime not just on Fridays. “Our members including myself realized that some masjids may not have space enough to accommodate women during Fridays but they too are open for us on other days when the footfalls are low,” she said.
She said it is a Sunnah (tradition of the Prophet) to offer namaz in masjid. “We must remember the Prophet’s clear commands and ensure that on one prevents women from coming to the masjid. We endeavour to make the masjid’s doors open for everyone – men, women, persons with special needs, and kids. Mosques should be accessible like they were in our beloved Prophet’s time,” she said.
The group has been taking steps towards this for the past two years. The initiative was first attempted on December 6 last year which coincided with the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary. Since then the women had been documenting their experiences and cataloguing such masjids where they have been allowed to pray.
“For us, a masjid is more than just its physical structure. It is the house of God and a place of worship. Where we are inspired to be the best of ourselves through soul-stirring khutbas (sermon) and befriend sisters in faith and learn our deen (religion). It is a place where we discover some of our identity and become a part of a large active community,” Sanober said.