What took Muslim leaders 75 yrs to let women into mosques?

It has taken the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) more than 75 years to finally state that Muslim women have the right to pray in mosques. The ‘right to pray’ and ‘equal access to sacred spaces’ are essentially fundamental rights in any humane, civilised and democratic society, where equality and non-discrimination are the universally accepted norms. Yet, in India, we continue to witness regressive practices, like women being barred from mosques and Dalits from mandirs. Thus, the struggle for dignity, equality and spiritual democracy carries on. It is a matter of great joy, and a victory, to see that the central body that represents the conservative to regressive Muslim/Islamic organisations, namely the AIMPLB, has finally stated in its affidavit in the Supreme Court that it does not oppose the right of Muslim women to pray in mosques. One of their conditions is that the principle of segregation will have to be followed as they do not approve of the mingling of sexes. Thus, women, as is the practice when they offer namaz, will have to stand behind the men. This was in response to a notice issued by the SC, wherein a Muslim woman, Farha Anwar Hussain Shaikh, moved the court in 2020, seeking to declare the prohibition of Muslim women from entering mosques as “illegal”. Earlier in 2019, Yasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade and her husband Zuber Ahmad Nazeer Ahmad Peerzade had filed a petition in the SC along similar lines. The irrepressible VP Zuhra, leader of Nisa, a progressive Muslim women’s organisation based in Kerala, also plans to approach the SC to appeal that all mosques must be made open for Muslim women to pray. medium98170977The women are clearly affirming here that they are equal citizens of India, and are categorically stating that their constitutional rights are being violated and that they seek justice from the judiciary. They have based their plea on the following articles of the Indian Constitution: Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 and 29, which constitute Part III of our fundamental rights, and lie at the very core of the concepts of non-discrimination and equality. For the benefit of the readers, I have reproduced each of these articles, in detail.Article 14: Equality before the law. The state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of laws within the territory of India. It further goes on to state that – ‘Right to equality’ is recognised as one of the basic features of the Constitution, Indra Sawhney v Union of India, (2000)1 SCC 168. Article 15: Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion. Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practice and propagate religion. Article 29: Cultural and educational rights. Protection of interests of minorities. (1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. To which this writer would also add Article 13, laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights. (1) All laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, insofar as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Part, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void. Though Article 13 is very explicit in its position, yet, there is a debate as to whether this article applies to ‘personal laws’, and on this matter I was left rather perplexed. Herein, I referred to a well-studied article, “Analysing the ambit and meaning of Article 13 – How did the judiciary interpret it?” In this well-informed and complex piece, Anamika Mishra (June 4, 2021) writes that “Article 13 reserves and preserves the fundamental rights of the citizens, protecting them from laws that may otherwise infringe upon our freedom.” In the State of Bombay v Narasu Appa Mali (1951), Justice MC Chagla, went on to differentiate between ‘laws’ and ‘personal laws’. Whereas in the Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group v Union of India (1997), the SC held that if religious laws are a part of the codified laws by the legislature, then the codification must be for the fundamental rights. Then in the case of the Indian Young Lawyers Association v The State of Kerala, also referred to as the Sabarimala judgment of 2018, the court went on to observe that, “As per Article 13 (3)(a) of the Constitution, ‘law’ includes custom or usage, and would have the force of law.” In my humble opinion, Article 13 must apply to cover personal laws of all religions, without any exception. Clearly our founding mothers and fathers foresaw the right to equality as one of the foundational structures, or rather, at the very heart and soul of our Constitution, and thus of our modern liberal democracy. medium98174317Fighting for empowermentLet’s now discuss the positive messages and developments that have emerged from the struggles of the Muslim women, both in India and abroad. Were women always barred from praying in mosques? Certainly not. Be it the Quran or the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, or the Hadiths, women were, in fact, encouraged to pray in the mosques. But as the male-dominated clergy and patriarchy took over Islam, the space for women continued to diminish, and the written and oral narrative began to change, consigning Muslim women to the margins of society. Do refer to the following rather inspiring examples enumerated below. The book, Women in Masjid – A Quest for Justice by Ziya Us Salam, goes on to say, “There was a time when Muslim women in India not only prayed in mosques, they even built them.” Salam talks about Razia Sultan, ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, who defied odds to claim the throne. Razia Sultan went to the Quwwatul Islam Masjid in Mehrauli to pray on a Friday, to cement her claim to the throne. This was the first masjid of North India, and opened the doors for other women to pray in the mosques as well. Razia Sultan not only prayed in mosques, but also built a number of mosques. The fascinating book is replete with numerous examples of women’s empowerment during this period of Indian history. The Begums of Bhopal who ruled over four generations, for over 107 years, and built more than 50 mosques in Bhopal itself, of which some were built by women who were not from the royal family. These mosques had separate areas for women, referred to as the zenana. Bhopal boasts of the largest mosque in Asia – Taj-ul-Masjid, which has always had a separate section for women, as does the Jama Masjid. Thanks to the begums, Bhopal is clearly the most welcoming city for Muslim women worshippers to this day. medium98171826In the Parambu village in Tamil Nadu, Muslim women, fed up with the sexist attitudes of the male-dominated jamaats and their discriminatory and biased verdicts on family disputes, especially on divorce matters, decided to build their own mosque. For this purpose they founded an organisation called Chaaya. Since the women were never allowed to enter the mosque, even in matters dealing with them, they finally decided to challenge the hegemony of the male-dominated system and build their own mosque. The members of Chaaya have acquired a plot of land for this purpose. The group, Muslim Women in Masjid, continues to fight for the right of Indian Muslim women to pray in mosques. Rashida Tadapdar, who is one of the leaders of this movement, has been going from mosque to mosque in Assam, but to no avail. They recently organised a nationwide movement to offer Friday prayers across 15 cities, but the response from the conservative establishment was negative. But now, following positive developments in the SC, where the AIMPLB has finally acceded to their demands, the situation is finally beginning to turn around in their favour. Similarly another initiative, Muslim Women Masjid Project, seeks to ‘normalise and visibilise Muslim women in mosques’ and conduct a campaign to push for more women-friendly mosques across India. Even as Indian Muslim women struggle for their basic right to pray in mosques, certain other women-led efforts have taken the issue even further. It was Amina Wudud, a remarkable Islamic scholar and an imam, who led a mixed congregation namaz in a mosque in New York in 2005. Here both women and men, without being segregated, stood behind Wudud. medium98171908Another woman, Suheyla El-Attar, gave the azaan, or the call to prayer. Wudud faced flak from both the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as well as from the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University of Egypt, Sayyid Tantawi, both of whom strongly disapproved of a woman leading the prayers. In Turkey, a group called Women in Mosques Platform, that was founded in 2017, opposes the discrimination meted out to women. They also oppose the setting up of screens that hide female worshippers and make them feel that they have less right than men to pray in mosques. In Berlin, Seyran Hayes, a well-known women’s rights activist and lawyer, has founded the first ever ’liberal mosque’, where all are welcome. The Ibn Rush-Goethe Mosque was founded in 2017 and is based on non-segregation of the sexes, where both men and women pray side by side, as do gays, lesbians and transgender people. The mosque is also non-sectarian – Sunnis, Shias, Alevis, Sufis and the other sects all pray together. Here remarkably, women lead the prayers. Hayes has received support, but opposition as well, from conservatives and extremists. The concept of inclusive and liberal mosques has taken root in the US too. I will end with this a quote from Indian American academic, Asra Q Nomani: “The voices of women have been silenced by centuries of man-made traditions, we’re saying, ‘No More!’ We are going to move from the back of the mosque to the front of the mosque.”