Muslim female activists who lodged an appeal in the last month to allow more women to attend the Eid salaah on Sunday have tasted some success after several months in the north of the country acceded to the request. Speaking to the Tuesday Debate, director of Ilm South Africa, Fatima Asmal, said the prohibition of women at the majority of mosques in the north did more harm than good. Her comments came after an outcry over the opinion of the Darul Igshan Islamic Service Society's Fatwa Department, deeming it impermissible for women to attend any congregational prayers, including the Eid salaah.
The KZN perspective
"It would be incorrect to say that all mosques in Durban do not allow women to attend the salaah, but the majority of the masajied do not cater for women. I say to each sister her own, because there are women who don't believe they should be going to the mosque and prefer to stay at home, but there are also sisters who want to go to the mosque and find that they can't- and this is where the problem arises," said Asmal.
While there are limited mosques that do cater for Jumah salaah, Asmal said the major issue comes into play for the Eid salaah. "Here we have Eidgha's - which are open air salaahs held on the day of Eid. We have two major ones in Durban and neither of them caters for women. But, what is so strange is that this is the one salaah where the Rasool (SAW) said that all women, including the virgins and the ones without a jilbab - who should make a plan to borrow one from a sister - should be attending."
She added that even in the case of a traveller who has to break their travels to make salaah, in most cases the husband is allowed to go into the mosque and pray, but the women would have to wait in the car. According to Asmal, "a kind of Islamic revolution" is currently taking place, where a new generation of sisters are becoming more involved publicly in their deen and are beginning to speak out over issues such as this one.
"There is a new generation of sisters, especially post 9/11 where women are becoming very passionate and involved in their deen." The major problem with women not being allowed to frequent the mosques, Asmal said, was that the mosque was meant to be a community centre for all Muslims, "but if women do not go to the mosque, the needs of the women will more than likely not be catered for and they will only cater for men."
The main reasoning given by the Fatwa Committee for prohibiting the women from congregational salaah was the inappropriate dress and behaviour of most women. To this, Asmal said the opposite was true in the Masjid. "When it comes to Eid, I have found the opposite to be true. Whatever clothes that we have bought for the day of Eid, they might be bright and beautiful but we do not wear them to the salaah, we dress in ordinary clothes when going to the mosque. There seems to be a trend here in Durban that women who want to attend the salaah are dubbed as being immoral. I really don't think that any woman who wants to attend the masjid can be seen as immoral or wanting to cause fitna."
The Gauteng Experience
Quraysha Yousuf, an author and motivational speaker now residing in Pretoria, agreed with Asmal's views. She states that women who do attend the mosque are in fact the ones who are dressing correctly. "I have never seen women attend a mosque inappropriately dressed, but there are women who dress inappropriately and if they were to be encouraged to attend the mosque they would be better influenced into wearing the scarf and dressing modestly. If you bring them to good places you would get nothing but good from them."
Yousuf said she was first alerted to enormity of the trend in the north to not allow women to attend the Eid salaah, after giving a series of motivational talks to women during Ramadan. As the end of Ramadan drew to a close, she began to remind women about the importance of the Eid salaah. "Many women came up to me and said that various muftis and maulanas had said that it was not permissible and that's when I began to do my own research."
She added that the tone and manner in which the issues were addressed by the ulema had left much to be desired. "Instead of them saying the women are always wonton and wearing tight clothes so we don't want them to come to the mosque, encourage them to come, but educate them on the etiquette of dress and behaviour."
A positive outcome
After creating awareness around the issue, she said the mosques that do accommodate women on the day of Eid were packed to capacity. "We managed to get through to a lot of women. The Eid salaah was a success and, the people in Mafikeng allowed women for the Eidgha for the first time in the history of the mosques existence. The brothers on the organising committee were exemplary in arranging the ladies' section and considered all aspects of their needs and hijab."
Following the media coverage on this the issue and the high turn out of women in the mosques on the day of Eid, Yousuf made a special thanks to the male support in this cause. "We salute our brothers for their faith in the honour and rights of the Muslim women! A society that honours and educates its women is a society that is protected.
"As journalist Safiyyah Surtee wrote: ‘We had both fasted, we had both stood for the long nightly prayers, we had both increased our adhkaar (remembrance of God), we had both read the Quran, we had both helped each other try to gain nearness to Allah. And so we both deserved to come out on Eid morning, and thank Allah for the day, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers, men and women did a century and half ago'." VOC (Aisha Mouneimne) |
