Norwegian Muslim Plans to Open Feminist and LGBT-Friendly Mosque

Thee Yezen al-Obaide.

(Photo: Facebook/Thee Yezen al-Obaide)

In a move to shatter social taboos, a Muslim man is planning to set up a liberal mosque in Oslo, open to people of all genders and orientations. The mosque will be called Masjid al-Nisa’ (The Women’s Mosque) and will allow female imams, reports The Local.

Speaking to the Oslo newspaper Vårt Land, Thee Yezen al-Obaide, the man behind the proposal said:

The mosque will be a place that is open for anyone that feels that they do not fit in at ordinary mosques. Women, men, trans people, homosexuals, heterosexuals – everyone is welcome.

Thee Yezen al-Obaide told <i>Vårt Land</i>

According to Al-Obaide, both men and women should be able to lead prayers and be allowed to pray in the same room. He added that the establishment of this mosque would seek to achieve greater representation of women and enable them to operate in the same sphere as men.

Another such liberal mosque opened in Berlin last week, with a female imam and women and men praying side by side.

Men and women pray together at the new liberal Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Hannibal Hanschke /Reuters)

China, the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium and Denmark are currently the only countries with female imams, according to The Local.