Since last month Muslim women across the Islamic world have been boiling over a proposal to disallow women praying within the circumambulation area of the Grande Mosque in Makkah.
The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, the Haj Research Institute and the Makkah Governorate are all backing the plan.
Reactions from women in the Kingdom and outside have been against the proposal and many were disappointed that the idea was floated in the first place. It has raised a number of questions and demands.
Thank God, the official authority in the matter, the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, contained the conflict when it was announced at a press conference chaired by Vice-Chairman Dr. Muhammad Nasser Al-Khozaim that women wouldn’t be pushed off the mataf (the area surrounding the Kaaba where the circumambulation takes place) and that they would get two additional areas as part of the expansion of the mosque. News agencies carried the announcement on Sept. 11 and women everywhere greeted the news with much joy.
However, we as Muslim women know our duties as we do our rights. Hence we see that there are two basic issues related to women’s right to pray in the two Holy Mosques that have not been resolved — in fact the latest controversy has obscured these issues so that we are content with the current state that is quite far from one’s aspiration. The first issue concerns the Makkah Grand Mosque and the second is related to the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
I will begin with the Grand Mosque. To our knowledge, a group composed of men and women in Makkah had submitted a report to Prince Abdul Majeed that proposed “increasing the women’s prayer space in the circumambulation area.” A third of the area, they suggested, should be set apart for women.
The report also included a study accompanied by pictures showing how the women’s prayer area had been reduced over the last several years. And the Makkah governor immediately sent the study to be reviewed by a committee composed of representatives from the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, Haj Research Institute and the Governorate to look into the possibility of implementing this proposal.
After eight months what they came out was with a proposal that caused such uproar last month. We saw its results. Their idea was to exclude women totally from that area.
For those who are not accurately informed about what is meant with the prayer area for women — that was approved by the presidency — I will try to clarify it. The area is limited to 630 square meters (keep in mind that the circumambulation area is 18,000 square meters in total) fenced in with iron. Women call it “the women’s cage” because it resembles a barred enclosure. The iron fence is two-meters high so that when a woman stands at her full height she cannot see the Kaaba. So what would a praying woman see while in a seated position? It has two tight entrances on each side. And though the walls are fixed on wheels, it is still hard to move due to the weight of the iron fence. As for the back of this area, which is parallel in other parts of the Holy Mosque to two steps extending from the ground floor, the women’s area is surrounded by metal fences. The area may witness a catastrophe if people scramble and push one another; that kind of crush could kill women and children.
The fenced area in the mataf has so many problems.
I’m not addressing only security and psychological problems but legal ones, too, according to Shariah. The high fence that separates women from the imam during prayer time and prevents from viewing the Kaaba technically speaking invalidates women’s prayers in spite of the fact they’re inside the Grand Mosque only meters away from the Kaaba. Islamic law says that people praying must see their imam or at least the last row of people praying behind the imam so that their prayer is accurate without barriers to separate them.
These conditions are not applicable in the fenced area inside the mataf; so how can our scholars explain this contradiction? Who takes the legal responsibility for women’s prayers that become void because they cannot see the imam?
We ask the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs to review and reconsider the arrangements that separate and isolate women inside the mosque and annul their prayers. We would like these fences to be removed and have a painted sign on the ground that identifies women’s ground in the mosque just like it used to be twenty years ago. We would also like to have the women’s area enlarged to occupy half of the praying area in the mataf.
Allah sent Islam for men and women equally so why not apply this idea in terms of the space allotments in the Grand Mosque?
Correct me if I’m wrong.
— Hatoon Al-Fassi is a Saudi historian based in Riyadh. She can be reached at: Hatoon-alfassi@columnist.com.
