Did y'all see this?

[ceebeegee]

Muslim woman leads mixed congregation in prayer.

How wonderful!

And to address the protestors (including those who threatened the mosque with bombs--nice):

The Koran does not directly address whether women can lead congregational prayer, several scholars said.

So shut the fuck up about it. If Mohammed didn't care, you shouldn't either.

While the policies of mosques vary, women have traditionally prayed in separate rows. Commonly they are relegated to less desirable areas of the mosque: behind the men, or in other quarters, like basements, hallways or on another floor where the imam's sermon is broadcast over speakers.

In about two-thirds of the mosques in the United States, women pray behind partitions, curtains or in separate rooms from men, according to a study conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The practice is not dictated by the Koran, but is the result of social traditions, said Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who specializes in Islamic law.

"The idea is that in today's world, men have become so corrupt they must be separate," he said. "If we don't seclude women and hide them, then men are not going to be able to concentrate on the prayer."

Don't you love how the men are supposed to be the corrupt ones, and yet it's the women who are shunted off to one side? That's the same reasoning that the Taliban used--women have to be covered from head-to-toe in suffocating outfits because men can't be trusted to behave themselves otherwise.

Okay, enough grumbling about "traditional" Islam, because I really am just so happy about this. I want to call this mosque, or write them and congratulate them. This is like the Episcopal Church's gay bishop. Yay for inclusion!

Comments

[foulpost.livejournal.com]

Overheard in a Saudi playhouse: "shut up and show us your ankles!"

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

I've always found the attitude that women have to be covered up and hidden away because men can't be trusted to control themselves very weird (and of course, we have similar stuff here in western culture too, just not quite to the same extreme). If this is the problem, then why aren't these societies putting the emphasis on teaching men how to behave themselves? Sadly, I've seen a lot of Muslim women support this position. They claim that by completely covering up, avoiding men, etc... that it somehow makes them more free. It seems to me that if women are being harassed, then the solution to this problem lies with getting men, not women, to change their behavior.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

There's a small subset of women who are the worst offenders of sexism--they are the first ones to call another woman a whore, a skank, based on the way they dress or act. Sometimes the bile you hear from them--it's worse than that from any man. Consciously or not, they appoint themselves as the defenders of the boundaries laid down by a sexist society. Sometimes it's an attempt to make themselves the exception, sometimes it's just currying up to power (as they perceive it). Sometimes, of course, it's just a huge denial about the sexism they experience--youll see that in women who blame rape on the victim, rationalizing that she shouldn't have been doing this or that. That is a woman in denial, who is too scared to admit it's possible a rape could happen and there's nothing you can do about it. To blame the victim defers power back to her and by extension to all women.

It really is sad and I think it bespeaks a certain amount of self-hatred. I never trust another woman who is too quick to call another woman a whore, or who is too interested in what she wears. If a Muslim woman feels more comfortable herself in more modest clothing, that's certainly her choice, but it really irks me when any woman takes it upon herself to appoint standards for other women. I always think they resent the lack of attention.