Women offer namaz in Lucknow mosque

Muslim women of Lucknow have created history by offering namaz at the Asafi Imambara mosque, the 213-year old edifice which is the city's most important landmark.

Even as much controversy was being raised over the question of allowing Muslim women to offer namaz in a mosque in Kerala, a group of nearly hundred Muslim women decided to converge at the Asafi Imambara mosque on Friday, August 15. However, it was a low-key and quiet affair, without prior announcement. But the subsequent Friday, August 22, the attendance swelled to 150. The news then broke out.

Significantly, women of all ages -- right from 16 to 70 -- thronged the mosque, shedding their earlier inhibitions and willing to defy any possible opposition. One person who took the lead in the entire affair was 18-year-old Sadaf Rizvi. "The whole idea was mooted during the course of the recent agitation over the Azadari procession that was banned in the state," she says. "Women turned out in large numbers to defy the government's ban on this Shia procession, together with men belonging to the community." The demonstration, a fallout of sectarian rifts in Lucknow, led to the arrest of hundreds of men and women.

"We, therefore, thought that when we are acceptable as equal partners in the agitation and demonstrations, why couldn't we participate in the Friday namaz in a mosque?" asked Sadaf Rizvi. Fifty-year-old Hamida Rizvi, a school teacher, was also impressed by the young student's initiative and readily chose to join her, followed by Shamsi, a middleaged housewife. Educationist Hima Zaidi says, "This should have started long ago; after all women freely offer namaz along with men when they go for Haj to Mecca and Medina."

Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, the Shia cleric and vice-president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board who was stated to have encouraged the trend, told Rediff On The NeT, "Initially, I was surprised when I saw a group of women flocking over to the Imambara mosque last Friday; but I readily welcomed it. After all, women go to mosques in Iran; Saudi Arabia women go to mosques during the Haj."

Referring to Islamic history, he says: "Prophet Mohammad himself was quoted as mentioning an incident when during the course of a namaz, he suddenly increased the pace of his prayer at a mosque; when he was asked why he had done so, the Prophet replied that he had noticed a women placing her infant on the floor to do namaz and that he did not want the baby to take the pain for long." Maulana Kalbe Sadiq sees no better argument in support of his ready acceptance of this new practice.

"Their participation in the Friday namaz will have a far-reaching impact on the life of Muslim women," he says. "You see, the namaz on Friday is different from that on other days; that is the day for sermons as well, and so it will offer women the opportunity to know about their rights and save them from getting misguided by fundamentalist maulanas who remain dogmatic in their approach."

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Muslim clergy in Kerala, many of whom have opposed the decision of Ahmed Kutty, the imam in Palayam in Kerala who let women offer namaz. As many as 300 imams of Kerala protested against the Palayam mosque imam's revolutionary decision.

While the lead has been taken by Shia women, Maulana Kalbe Sadeq is hopeful that "Sunni women too will soon come out to follow course." The times are changing, he says and recalls how a decade or so ago, a similar move evoked a poor response. "Only two women came out then. See the difference today. I am sure, we will draw much more crowds in the weeks to come."

EARLIER INTERVIEW/REPORT:
Kerala imam justifies allowing women into mosques
A prayer for the fair sex