A Muslim Group Is Pushing for More 'Women-Friendly' Mosques in India. Here's How

Video Editor: Rajbir Singh

When Alisha Uvais was five, she and her cousins would often wear a skullcap and enter the mosque near her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad to offer namaz. At the time, she didn’t think of this as either an affront or a revolutionary move – she was just a child after all.

She always looked back at this incident as a sweet childhood memory. Now, at 19, however, she realises in retrospect that this was perhaps a manifestation of her earliest urge to pray in a mosque, a dream she couldn’t properly realise until she moved to Delhi to pursue her bachelor's degree at the Jamia Millia Islamia university early 2022.

On 4 November, Friday, she prayed in congregation or jamaat inside a mosque for the first time with several other women standing shoulder-to-shoulder next to her. This was at the Ishat-e-Islam mosque, housed within the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s headquarters in southeast Delhi’s Okhla.

Twenty days later, in an unrelated move, the Jama Masjid made a controversial announcement barring the entry of lone women or even groups of women inside the old Delhi mosque after allegedly "receiving complaints of women exchanging roses with boys" and "making TikToks" in the masjid premises. The decision, made on 24 November, was revoked the same day after Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (LG) VK Saxena intervened.

Uvais said that she was shocked when she read about Jama Masjid's announcement. "Muslim women like us have been advocating for all mosques to have dedicated spaces for women. And now one of the biggest mosques in the country announces such a patriarchal diktat. This shows the sheer disconnect that most of the clergy have with the masses," she said.

Uvais' disappointment is in stark contrast with the joy she felt on 4 November immediately after finishing prayer in congregation.

“It's a surreal feeling. Praying in congregation in a mosque makes you feel a sense of belonging. There are other people praying with you, and even though they are strangers, these are the people you know you connect with. Because you believe in the same thing,” Alisha had told The Quint, after the prayer.

The women’s section of the mosque she prayed at stretches far and wide on the first floor, and is right above the men’s section. While many women frequent the mosque for the Friday prayers, a few among them had come this time around because they saw posters on social media or heard from acquaintances and friends about the ‘Muslim Women Masjid Project’ initiated by a group called the ‘Muslim Women Study Circle’ (MWSC).

The Idea Behind the Project

The MWSC is a group of women who hold online discussions on issues relevant to the Muslim community – both of religious as well as social nature. The ‘Muslim Women Masjid Project’ aims to “normalise and visiblise Muslim women in mosques,” and push for more women-friendly mosques all over India. While Muslim women praying in mosques has been a common sight historically, and still is the norm across different countries all over the world, women-friendly mosques are conspicuous by their absence in India and other parts of South Asia. The MWSC wants to change this.

“We decided to build a catalogue of mosques that have dedicated spaces for women across the different parts of the country wherever our volunteers are present. Then we agreed on a day and decided that all of us would make it a point to go and pray jumah (Friday prayer) in the respective city’s mosques on that day, as a coordinated visit. We also publicised this in our circles and on social media, hoping more women will join us,” said Sania Mariam, the founder of the MWSC.

The catalogue finally included mosques in 14 cities spread all over India, where the coordinated visit was held.

Iqra Ali, 28, who is the Delhi coordinator of this project, said that the first important reason behind this project was the need for a mosque felt by working women, who are often either traveling, or just don’t have a women-friendly mosque near their workplaces.

“We felt like there is a dire lack of spaces outside our homes where women can pray. This leads to a lot of women, who are outside their homes during prayer time to end up missing it. Now namaz (prayer) is an integral or rather compulsory part of a Muslim's life. It happens five times a day. And if we are outside our homes, as most of us usually are, especially in the afternoon, we will probably not find a place in a masjid or will have to wiggle our way inside a masjid in India if we want to pray,” Iqra told The Quint.

As the clock inched closer to 1:30 pm, the jumah time, more and more women began pouring into the Delhi mosque. While a majority were those who live nearby and come to this mosque on Fridays anyway, many others were those who came especially after learning of the project.

Nazreen Fatima, who is originally from Kolkata and currently a student at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) said that this was her first time praying in a mosque. “It felt absolutely amazing,” she said.

“When you pray alone, it can end up being an isolating experience. You don’t realise how long you should ideally stay in sajda (prostration) for. You can also end up becoming irregular with your prayer. But today I was fully immersed in prayer. I also felt a deep sense of community and solidarity.”

– Nazreen Fatima

‘Muslim Men Are the Backbone of This Movement’

From Kamarpatty masjid in Assam’s Guwahati and Masjid-e-Raza in Bihar’s Purnea, to Masjid-e-Salafiyyah in Karnataka’s Bangalore and Palayam Juma Masjid in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, women flocked to their local mosques in response to the group’s call to pray jumah together. In states like Maharashtra and West Bengal, more than one city witnessed the MWSC’s project in action.

The response wasn’t as positive everywhere. In Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, just one person showed up at the designated mosque. And in Nagaland’s Dimapur, the MWSC volunteers said that their local mosque refused to allow women to enter and pray. So instead, they went to one of the participant’s home and prayed, but ensured it was done in congregation.

The participants asserted that Muslim men in their families and circles have been very receptive to the movement. “My family was very happy that I was participating in something like this. They were very supportive,” Iqra Shahid, a 21-year-old student in Delhi who originally hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi, said.

Moreover, the women leading the project clarified that this isn’t a movement against Muslim men, as many of them have “formed the backbone” of the initiative.

“We are sitting right now in one of the largest mosques in Delhi, which has a great space for women. So to say that Muslim men are not allowing women in mosques is incorrect. Here we want to bring change from within the community and that is why we are working together with men. Men at our homes who are supporting us, who have formed the backbone of this initiative. Men at mosques who are fully committed to support us.”

– Iqra Ali

She added that the group does not want the project to be seen in the light of Muslim men vs Muslim women. “That is not the narrative we are trying to build forward. We are talking to these men. We are talking to the men at our homes, we are talking to men in the masjid committees. We are talking to imams. That’s how change occurs.”

Why ‘Women-Friendly’ Mosques Are Rare in India

The group argues that all mosques must have dedicated spaces for women, which, if not as large as the men’s section, must necessarily be as well-maintained. They have also taken it upon themselves to meet with the authorities of the mosques mentioned in the catalogue and discuss how the women’s section can be replicated across all other mosques, and why that hasn’t happened so far.

A Rahmathunnisa, the national co-secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind who is involved in the activities of the women department, said that women in masjids were a common sight in Islamic history. She cited the incident of how once when Prophet Muhammad was leading the prayer, he shortened it because he heard the cries of children in the mosque.

“Later he said that I shortened my prayer because I was thinking of the mother's feelings. If there was any such prohibition for women to enter the mosque, he would have told the mothers to stay at home and not disturb others with their children. But he didn't say that. In fact, he facilitated the path for the women to come to the mosque, he encouraged them,” Rahmathunnisa told The Quint.

She added that Quranic verses and hadith (collection of prophet’s life stories) are often “misinterpreted by those who want to use them to fit their worldview.”

However, Rahmathunnisa clarified that unlike with men, it is not “compulsory” for women to pray in mosques. “As per the Quran and sunnat, a woman is not compelled to enter the mosque, nor is she supposed to be stopped from entering the mosque. For men, it is compulsory to pray all the five prayers in a congregation in a mosque, including the Friday prayer. But women were exempted, that was a mercy from God. But that is being misrepresented as a prohibition or restriction.”

Rahmathunnisa sits in the JIH’s markaz or headquarters; the mosque where the women’s group prayed on 4 November is within its premises. While the JIH is one of the Islamic schools of thoughts that do allow for, and encourage, dedicated spaces for women in mosques, some other schools don’t. One oft-cited reason for the lack of women’s section in mosques is that often many women don’t turn up to pray.

But the women don’t buy that excuse. “More and more women will only start showing up at mosques if they know they are allowed to come and are encouraged. But this dialogue and discourse itself is missing in our community. Just because people are not turning up, that doesn't become an excuse for them (mosques) to not provide infrastructural facilities for a women’s section,” Nazreen said.

Rahmathunnisa said that it is true that often many women don’t show up at mosques, and with limited resources at hand, mosque committees choose to focus on building men-only mosques. “But that isn’t right. Even if 5 or 10 women come to your mosque, you should have a place for them to pray,” she said.

She added that back in Prophet Muhammad’s time, mosques didn’t just serve the purpose of providing a roof for prayer. “Mosques were also utilised for educating people. It was like their cultural centre, and I strongly believe that in India, our mosques have to come to that level, because it is a very good opportunity to educate our community through the mosque, including the women.”