15 March 2016

Worshipping as equals: Plans to build Britain's first women-led mosque

In Bradford, the Muslim Women's Council thinks its plans will go some way to address divisions in the community. David Barnett reports on their hopes and prayers.

.... “Without knowing, I had just walked into the men-only space,” she says. “I plucked up the courage to look around at the disapproving expressions, some men awkwardly looking away, some depreciatively staring directly at me, shaking their heads, and some confused and disoriented at a female figure invading their space, slowly moving away.”

One of the men, out of kindness to Nabeelah, offered to show her to the women's prayer space in the mosque. Well, almost in the mosque. She was taken back outside through the grand main entrance and directed around the side of the building to a back door, labelled with a marker pen as the “women's prayer room”. It couldn't have been more different from the calm, ordered atmosphere of the main mosque. [The Independent] Read more