The first day of the holy month of Ramzan, which began last Tuesday, witnessed, for the first time, Muslim women offering prayers along with men folk at a Sunni mosque in the walled city.

The joint prayer by Muslim men and women comes close on the heels of a woman donning the mantle of “quazi” and solemnising the marriage of a Muslim couple in the city recently.

“The joint prayers, which would be held throughout the month of Ramzan, was organised at the initiative of the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPB)”, chairperson Shaista Amber told Deccan Herald.
Known for her progressive views, Ms Amber lambasted the Muslim clergy saying the women were not allowed by them to hold prayers in the mosques.

She said the joint prayers would continue throughout the month of Ramzan.

“It is the first step towards bringing about a revolution against narrow-minded self-proclaimed religious leaders, who think they are custodians of Islam,” the AIMWPB chairperson said.

Muslim women usually hold prayers within the confines of their homes, as they are not permitted to pray in mosques.

At some mosques special closed enclosures were made to enable women to offer prayers.

The AIMWPLB had recently decided to establish special mosques for women only for offering “namaz” (prayers). The mosques would act as centres for imparting social education among Muslim women so that they could improve their social status within the community.

Just as maulanas and imamas deliver sermons after prayers, women priests would also address the muslim women after the namaz, Ms Amber had said.

The new initiative of the board has met with serious objections from Muslim clerics.

Taking strong exception to the development, All India Muslim Personal Law Board member and senior sunni cleric Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali said there would be problems if women were allowed to offer namaz alongwith menfolk at mosques.

“Women can offer namaz, but they have been barred owing to certain practical difficulties,” he told Deccan Herald here.

Another cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman Waizi Nadvi also voiced his opposition to such a move saying it could pose problems to women themselves. Ms Amber, however, rejected the objections claiming that women used to offer namaz during Prophet Mohammad’s time. Amber had recently come out with a new “shariat nikahnama” granting several special rights to women and making registration of marriages compulsory.