WUNRN
India: Islamic
Seminary Rejects Mosques for Women
Deoband,
8 May (AKI/Asian Age) - An Indian seminary in the northern city of Deoband has
rejected a proposal for the establishment of separate mosques for Muslim women.
The Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic seminary reacted strongly to a proposal by the
All-India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board to set up separate mosques.
According to the daily, The Asian Age, the deputy in-charge of the edict
department of the seminary, Mufti Ehsan Qasmi, told reporters in Deoband that
Islam did not permit Muslim women to act as imams in mosques.
Maulana Naim-ur-Rahman Siddiqui, a scholar at the Nadwa Islamic seminary in the
northern Indian city of Lucknow, has said that issues such as woman-led prayers
and new women-only mosques were being borrowed from western countries.
Siddiqui argues that attempts were being made to distract attention from more
pressing issues.
"Our Muslim sisters should rather be preoccupied with educating the young
generation about their religion and protecting them from moral
aberration," he said.
Earlier this week the board president, Shaista Amber had said: "The time
has come for ulemas and Muslim leaders to set up separate mosques for women in
every city so that women in the community can also offer namaz and attend
religious congregations."
Amber said the Koran was not against women offering namaz (obligatory prayers)
in mosques and that Hazrat Bibi Hafsa, one of the wives of the prophet
Mohammed, used to act as an imam and had led women in offering namaz.
Responding to the reaction of Muslim clergy and particularly from the group of
Islamic seminarians, she told The Asian Age on Wednesday that opposition to her
proposal was "baseless."
"A mosque for women has also been opened in Tamil Nadu recently. Besides,
in a mosque in the Rail Bazar area of Kanpur, men and women offer namaz
together, five times a day, though the enclosures are demarcated," she
said.
"We are not saying that women will lead the men in namaz — we are simply
saying that a woman will lead only women in namaz and the Muslim clergy should
not have any opposition to this."
Amber denied that there was a dearth of women maulvis (religious cleric or
teachers).
"More than a dozen girls in Meerut have acquired the degree needed to
become a maulvi. Once mosques for women become functional, girls will
automatically take to religious education," she said.
Amber, to underline her point, said that she herself had been offering namaz at
a mosque in Rae Bareli Road since 1999.
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