The Muslim News

Washington, DC,(UPI) -- Two women -- one of them a veteran campaigner and the other a novice -- prayed beside men Friday in Washington's Islamic Center, the hub of America's Muslim community.

"It felt so beautiful," said Rahat Khan, a tax accountant from Maryland. "I was really proud and pleased to see all these Muslim men, creating space for us."

Khan, new in this campaign for demanding equal rights for women inside the mosque, almost turned away from the door of the Islamic Center in Washington's diplomatic enclave. "I told Asra I may not go in but I did," she said, referring to Asra Nomani, the woman who started the campaign about three years ago from a mosque in Morgantown, W. Va.

"Last night, I was afraid. Today it felt very nice," said Khan who met first met Nomani last week but was not willing to go to the mosque with her until Thursday night and was having second thoughts when they arrived at the mosque Friday afternoon. Her desire for regaining the equal status that she believes Islam has given her, but has been denied to her by Muslim men, overcame her fear.

"I felt like I have to do it because nobody else will do it for me. All my friends were saying it is dangerous, why you are doing this," said Khan. "I also thought it may be violent, I may be arrested."

Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of a book on Muslim women, is now a veteran. Besides praying in the same hall as men at various mosques, Nomani also participated in the first-ever woman-led prayers in New York and Boston last month.

According to Nomani and her supporters, including an Islamic scholar Amina Wadud, Islam does not prevent women from leading prayers or saying their prayers beside men. They note that even today, men and women pray side by side in Islam's two holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia.

Traditionalists, who have dominated mosques for centuries, disagree. They acknowledge that women pray in the same space as men in Mecca and Medina, especially during the annual pilgrimage when millions come to the two cities for Hajj. But they argue that these are very sacred places where men and women both focus on their prayers. In ordinary mosques, they say, a woman's presence can distract a man, particularly because Muslim prayers are more physical and involving bending, bowing and prostrating.

"If our presence distracts men, it is their problem, not our," says Nomani who came to Washington earlier this week to extend her campaign to the U.S. capital.

While her efforts have won her many admirers, it has also earned her many critics. Among them was Libya's Moammar Gadhafi who said last month that by encouraging women to lead prayers, Americans were further annoying the Muslims and would end up creating "hundreds of Osama bin Ladens."

"Rubbish," said Nomani. "Bin Laden is a creation of the Afghan jihad, not a women's movement."

Undeterred by such criticism, Nomani and Khan arrived at Washington's Islamic Center at 12:30 p.m. There were about 600 men in the mosque and about 100 women in the basement. The women watched silently but did not join the two protesters.

When they went up the main stairs, a man informed them that women pray downstairs. They ignored them. Three more men came, and there's a separate section for women in the basement. Yet another came and asked them to go downstairs.

"Then a man turned to me and said, 'Sister, I want to hear what you have to say, you are violating this rule, what's your basis?'" said Nomani. "I told him at the time of Prophet Mohammed there was no separation. He said, 'You are doing the wrong thing.'"

"It was a beautiful place, very different from the basement. It was wonderful for meditation," she continued. "We read the Koran. More men came and told us to go downstairs, they were polite though."

The prayer leader did not interfere. "Instead, he gave us a beautiful sermon on how compassion and equality strengthens a family. We were experiencing kindness, equality and tolerance because the leadership had decided to allow us to pray," said Nomani. Nomani visited one of the mosque's administrators, Farzad Darui, on Thursday who told her that for 40 years women at this mosque had prayed in the basement. They were not allowed to pray in the main hall.

"But when we arrived, I discovered that men did make space for us. I met Mr. Darui later who told me that half a dozen men complained against allowing women to pray inside the main hall," she said.

"But what we experienced inside the mosque was mutual trust and happiness. We were able to experience tranquility and peace," said Nomani.

"One of the men who had admonished me, turned to me and said, 'I learned something from you today. Thank you.' Another man said, 'Sister, this is your place, you are welcome here anytime.'"

"God did not strike the Islamic Center with the lighting bolt because women prayed in the main hall," she added.

Nomani said it was so different from what she experienced at the 99th street in New York Tuesday evening. The imam (the prayer leader) asked Nomani to go behind the curtain. She refused. For two hours, they debated the issue. The imam told her that Muslims in America also have to observe Islamic laws, which require a woman to pray separately.

So Nomani prayed on the sidewalk outside New York's Islamic Cultural Center.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050408-070423-4489r.htm

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