Muslim women saying prayers at mosque kicks up a row

Hassan wakf committee recommends action against mosque

Hassan District Wakf Committee has raised objections to Muslim women gathering in a mosque at K.R. Puram here for special prayers during the month of Ramadan. The committee has recommended that Karnataka State Wakf Board take action against the mosque’s managing committee.

However, the managing committee of the mosque has said that the Wakf Board has no authority to decide who should go to a mosque or who should not.

Syed Umar Farooq, secretary of the managing committee, said: “For last 8-10 years, women have been taking part in the special prayers conducted during Ramadan. We have constructed a hall for this. The board is meant to look after administration, not decide who should pray there.”

The meeting was held after the district wakf committee received a complaint from representatives of a group opposed to women taking part in prayers.

Syed Khasim, chairman of the advisory committee, held a meeting with moulvis in Hassan on Wednesday during which the moulvis are said to have expressed, based on the Shariah, opposition to women gathering for prayers in mosques.

He said that the mosque’s management committee had not responded to their notice seeking clarification. He said that only a few members in the management committee were in favour of women gathering for prayers.

“I have recommended to the board to appoint an administrator for the mosque abolishing the managing committee, whose term expired two years ago, and also stop this practice of women taking part in prayers,” he said.

However, narrating the history of women’s congregation, Mr. Farooq said that 10 years ago women in K.R. Puram volunteered to take part in special prayers in the mosque.

Since then they had been taking part in prayers, he added.

“Even after a section of people raised objections to this in the last few days, the number of women taking part in the prayers has not come down. Up to 90 women pray in the hall constructed for them regularly,” he said. He alleged that some people were raking up a non-issue for political reasons. “Those who want to on the managing committee are creating the controversy,” he said.