Leap of faith

Emboldened by the Supreme Court verdict lifting the restriction on women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple, Muslim women in Kerala demand equal opportunity to pray in religious places.

V.P. Zuhra, who is planning to move court with regard to Muslim women’s right to enter mosques.

Even as all attention is focussed on women entering the Sabarimala temple, women from other communities have taken heart from the Supreme Court verdict that made it possible. Among them are Muslim women from Kerala who are seeking to enter Sunni mosques in the State. Some from the majority community, too, are apparently seeking to enter the prayer hall at the Vavar mosque at Erumely en route to Sabarimala.

After their attempts to enter mosques were thwarted by a patriarchal clergy, a few Muslim women are now planning to move the Supreme Court to redress their grievance. Leading the struggle is V.P. Zuhra, who is considered a Muslim feminist in conservative circles. With NISA (Arabic for women), a forum for progressive women, Zuhra is planning to approach the Supreme Court later this month to win the right for women to enter mosques. “We cannot be denied. Like men, we too have a constitutional right to offer prayer. We want access to all mosques of all denominations, not just a handful of mosques,” she said.

Significantly, this is a right already safeguarded by Islam. The Prophet, too, never prohibited any woman from going to mosques. He, in fact, asked men not to stop their wives from going to mosques if they so desired. To a question regarding this, Zuhra replied: “That is true, but Sunni men do not want to do that. Not just here, but across the world there are two important sects of Muslims, Sunni and Shia. While Shias allow women in mosques, Sunnis do not. We plan to fight this exclusion of women by Sunnis. Despite the injunctions in the Quran, they want to keep women under house arrest. They want to control women, and so this move to deny them the right to pray in a mosque. We want to enter mosques, but we will not limit ourselves to that. We want to be imams and to lead prayers. So far, only men have led prayers and women have stayed at the back.” Nearly 600 mosques maintained by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and the Salafis in Kerala have segregated prayer space for men and women. “Yes, that is true. But we do not just want permission from men to go to a masjid. It is the right of women to go to a market, a masjid, everywhere,” said Zuhra, adding, “or Sabarimala too, wherever they want. It will provide them a chance to interact with people and society. They should be allowed in all mosques, including the Vavar mosque.”

Vavar is believed to have been a companion of Lord Ayyappa. Sabarimala pilgrims visit the mosque to offer prayers or perform rituals such as circumambulation or breaking the coconut. The Vavar mosque regularly receives women visitors and has not had any restriction on the entry of women or in performing the rituals according to tradition.

Zuhra is not the first woman in Kerala to challenge stereotypes. Early last year, Jamida of Malappuram hit the headlines when she led mixed-gender prayers. She, too, quoted from Islamic history in favour of her move as she led both the Friday prayers and the Taraweeh, the special prayers during Ramzan. “The Quran addresses all believers; it does not say that women, or men cannot lead prayers. Both can,” she had said then (see interview with Jamida, “I follow the Quran”, Frontline , March 2, 2018).

Now Zuhra plans to carry the movement forward. Said Zuhra: “The Jamaat [Jamaat-e-Islami Hind] permits women to only go to a masjid. But they try to control women by insisting on purdah for small girls and by not permitting girls to take up a job. Women should be permitted to take up a job, enter a masjid and even be an imam. Now imamat is limited to men. This is not correct and we want to get the right to imamship for women also.”

A Jamaat-e-Islami official, however, denied it, pointing out that the organisation has a woman secretary and is among the first bodies to safeguard women’s right to enter a masjid or offer prayers in a congregation.

Though she plans to go to the Supreme Court for women’s right to enter all mosques, Zuhra’s journey has been far from easy. In the absence of support from her family, she has fought the battle all by herself. Last year, she was subjected to online abuse. Apparently, posters were put up in the market near her residence with her photograph and a message that read, “This is the person who wants to enter the masjid. Hope Allah calls her immediately.”

Jamida and Zuhra have raised their voices in recent times, but Kerala has a history of enlightened women fighting for the right to enter mosques. Some 12 years ago, a group of 11 women, led by Rukya, petitioned the authorities seeking permission to enter all mosques in Ernakulam (Kochi). The Kerala State Wakf Tribunal ruled in their favour.

Despite the verdict, Muslim women in Kannur could not enter the mosque. While some mosques did open their portals to women, many equivocated. Said advocate Jouhar: “The men found ways to deny them permission. The women could enter other mosques, but not the one in Kannur. The verdict was in favour of the women, but the crowd around some of the mosques did not permit them despite the fact that the tribunal had studied the Quran, gone through some fatwas on the subject and consulted scholars before arriving at the decision.” Still the office-bearers of the mosque did not provide women with the provision to offer prayers at the mosque.

Under the circumstances, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is said to have prevailed upon the women not to pursue the case further and satisfy themselves with those mosques which were readily opening their prayer spaces for them. Said Rukya: “Women have a right to pray in a masjid whenever they want. They should not be denied.”

Married to a renowned Islamic scholar, Abdus Salam, 65-year-old Rukya cites the example of West Asia to buttress her claim. “All mosques there permit women to offer prayers. Here, many local mosques are under the control of people who do not know much about Islam. Some maulanas who understand Arabic and understand the Quran permit women to go to a mosque, but in reality there are many who still stop women because of vested interests. They want to keep women in submission,” said Rukya, adding, “It is important to base the fight for the right to enter the masjid within the fold of Islam. Anything permitted to women should not be denied. No innovation should be attempted.”

Incidentally, Kerala is emerging as the flag-bearer of Muslim women’s rights with respect to mosques. Unlike most States of northern and central India, Kerala has a good number of mosques which are open to women. And even those that do not host women in the regular five prayers keep a provision for them to offer their own prayer in private. For this purpose, most mosques keep a women’s facility adjacent to the prayer hall or the main compound.

Said Nahaas, former president of the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO): “Most women from residential areas prefer to pray at home. It is their belief. They believe it is best to offer prayers at home. You cannot change their value system. But for those who want to go to a mosque, the Jamaat-e-Islami keeps its mosques open to women, and Salafi mosques also are open. Others too keep a provision for them. Nowadays, even non-Muslim women come to mosques after Friday prayers to see how a mosque looks like from inside, how a prayer is performed. They are welcome.”

Sabarimala has clearly inspired the likes of Zuhra.