Writer Saman Javid does not feel comfortable going to the mosque, and she sees this feeling shared by many Muslim women in Britain, not because she had a negative experience or was banished or because of anything from the Islamic faith, but because she grew up with a firm belief that mosques are for men.

Although her father and brothers went to the neighborhood mosque every week, her sister and mother refrained from doing so, but she never asked why.

And the writer Javid spoke - in an article for her published in the British newspaper "The Independent" - about her experience and the experiences of other Muslim women in mosques in the United Kingdom. My memory is to a small, dimly lit room."

Mosques allow women to pray on special occasions

According to the latest statistics collected in 2017, there are about 1,795 mosques across the UK, 72% of which allocate facilities for women, while some mosques allow women to pray in them only during Islamic religious occasions, such as Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, unlike the services provided. For men to perform each of the five daily prayers in the mosque every day of the year.

The British Muslims' Guide to UK Mosques notes that some facilities for women are sometimes made available to men during peak periods, and that some places are not accessible to people with disabilities.

Vibrant Scottish Muskes: The majority of Muslim women in Britain feel the mosque is for men (Getty Images)

Inadequate placement of facilities for women

Faiza Hussain, 22, - a pseudonym - from London remembers that she went out to dinner with her friends in the Paddington area, and when she went to pray at a mosque in Brick Lane, she and her friends were led to a chapel down a dark and narrow staircase, where the place of prayer was a room in the basement. .

“The carpet was wet and felt like it was submerged in water,” says Faiza, and the women's ablution facilities were in poor condition and not maintained.

The place was so poorly lit that one of them almost slipped and fell."

Shortly after the prayer began, the mosque official interrupted them and told them that they had to leave because it was better for a woman to pray at home.

This view of the employee is not universal, but it is widely accepted in most Deobandi mosques.

As it makes up most places of worship in the UK, this has had a lasting impact on how women feel about attending local mosques.

Campaigns to include women in prayer in mosques

The writer referred to what was stated in a report issued last March by Vibrant Scottish Mosques, an organization that campaigns for the inclusion of women in mosques, and found that the vast majority of women felt that the mosque was a place reserved for men, They feel unwelcome and unwanted.

For some, this feeling of isolation begins at the mosque's door.

Julie Siddiqui visited a local mosque during Ramadan, when a man at the main gate told her that the women's entrance had been turned down a dark alley.

"It was horrible," says Jolie. "I didn't want to walk there alone. The whole geography, the whole mentality is for men. This needs to change."

She added that some of her experiences in mosques made her feel like a burden, "Giving you a second-class space, where you don't know the qiblah or whether the imam started reciting or not, is horrific. It's a very sad feeling. Then people ask why women don't go to mosques?" ' says Julie.

"Open My Mosque" initiative

The author talked about the "Open My Mosque" initiative, an initiative that documents the good and bad experiences of using mosques in the UK, which recently polled more than 300 British Muslims about the improvements required within mosques.

According to interim findings shared with The Independent, 75% said mosques should change to be more welcoming to women, while 45% said they - or someone they knew - had at least one negative experience in a mosque because of being women.

Additionally, 85% said they wanted prayer spaces that were always available to both men and women, not just on major Islamic occasions, while 68% said they believed mosque administrations do not adequately appreciate the needs of worshipers.

Anita Nayyar, co-founder of the initiative, said, “The importance of a prayer space for women should not be underestimated. Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day as it is a fundamental pillar of Islam. Our research showed that this is the number one thing that people want to be able to There is anxiety that comes from missing out on prayer. When we can't get to a mosque and don't have a place to pray, it hurts our spiritual health. At least we should be able to perform our religious duties, because that defines our day, and connects us to God."

The closure of places of worship across the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made many men aware of the important role of mosques (Getty Images)

Mosques are a real learning opportunity for men and women

With places of worship closed across the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many men have realized the impact of not having a common space.

“Men suddenly realized the important role of mosques, but us women, we always knew we didn’t have it,” said Sahra Dar, founder of Vibrant Scottish Musks. “While men felt the emptiness created by the pandemic, they imagined the emptiness in women’s lives the rest of the time. It was a learning opportunity. real."

The writer emphasized that many women are reluctant to speak openly about this issue, for fear of shedding a negative light on mosques, which could create an - unreal - anti-Islam perception that it oppresses women in light of the spread of Islamophobia.

Muslims were the target of 2,703 religious hate crimes last year, 45% of all crimes recorded in the UK that year.

In addition, a report by the Muslim Council of Britain's Media Monitoring Center found that 60% of articles online portray Muslims negatively.

Ensuring increased opportunities for Muslim women

Women's groups believe that the key to making places of worship more inclusive is to increase the presence of women on mosques' councils and advisory committees.

While data on the number of women running mosques is not available, experts say this is extremely rare.

There must be a women's committee that can assess the situation and find out what is missing.

There will always be gaps, and there has to be Muslim women's participation to see them.

This view is supported by the Muslim Council of Britain, which says it encourages more constructive dialogue and solutions-focused approaches to ensure increased access and opportunities for Muslim women.

The writer noted that in the wake of complaints against the Brick Lane Mosque, members of the board of directors reformed the women's chapel.

Marouf Ahmed, the imam of the mosque, explains that the women’s entrance is now next to the men’s entrance, and there are stairs that take you directly to the prayer hall, adding that he hopes to hire women for the advisory committee in the near future.

The change already has a ripple effect.

While the mosque previously only saw groups of 3 or 4 women for Eid prayers, earlier this June it welcomed a gathering of 50 women.