On returning from a brief trip to Istanbul, where inside the mosques women are still very much kept to one side, only allowed to look on from an angle, unable to contemplate the full mystery of the space created within those extraordinary domes, I was intrigued on Sunday to happen upon Heart and Soul (produced by Lindsay Leonard) and to hear a Muslim woman leading the prayers to Allah. She sounded so natural, so intent, her voice modulated and firm, uplifting and authoritative. But how, I wondered, is this possible? Where is this female imam allowed to practise?
It turned out that Samira Ahmed (from Radio 4’s Front Row) was reporting for the World Service from the Inclusive Mosque Initiative in north London, where men and women pray side by side and all the leadership positions have been given to women. In this mosque it is the men who lay out the prayer mats and make the tea. ‘We’re not trying to change the attitudes of Muslims who are more conservative,’ Ahmed was told. ‘We just want to practise our faith in the way that works for us.’
It’s not just about justice for women. Conversations inside the mosque attempt to reconcile being Muslim and homosexual, Shia and Sunni, and the questioning of faith, not blind acceptance, is encouraged. Ahmed also travelled north to Bradford, where one quarter of the population is now Muslim and more than 110 mosques have been created since the first Muslim immigrants from south Asia arrived there more than half a century ago. Here, too, changes are afoot as their grandchildren and great-grandchildren question the way women have been sidelined from religious practice.
She talked to Bana Gora, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Council, which is seeking to build an all-inclusive mosque, governed by women.
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