Women’s Mosque Of America: American Muslim Women Are Finding A Unique Religious Space At A Women-Only Mosque In Los Angeles
New
Age Islam News Bureau
08
May 2022
•
Samar Kamel, Egyptian Artist In Dubai Highlights Women’s Issues In Her Works
•
Vatican Preparing For Possibility Of Women Swiss Guards
•
Gujarat Court Cites Hadith, “Most Detestable In The Sight Of God”, While
Punishing Man For Triple Talaq
•
Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui: A Pakistani-American Looks Forward To Continuing To Make
Cambridge A More Equitable And Civically Engaged Community
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mosque-american-religious-los-angeles/d/126953
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Women’s
Mosque Of America: American Muslim Women Are Finding A Unique Religious Space
At A Women-Only Mosque In Los Angeles
The
Women’s Mosque of America brings together an ethnically diverse group. The
Women's Mosque of America
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03/05/2022
St
Louis (US), May 2: As Ramadan draws to a close, Muslims around the world
prepare to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of a month of
fasting from dusk till dawn and additional acts of worship. On Eid, as in
Ramadan, community is an integral component of Islamic observance, and many
Muslims gather in their local mosque in communal prayer.
But
not all Muslims belong to a religious community, and sacred dates in the
Islamic calendar can prove profoundly isolating for those Muslims who are
“unmosqued” – that is, not affiliated with a particular mosque community.
This
may especially be the case for Muslims who are female, nonbinary, queer or
converts. After all, most mosques in the US and around the world are
patriarchal spaces where men occupy the main prayer area and dominate
leadership roles.
In
many mosques, women are given inferior prayer spaces that are typically cramped
and poorly ventilated. While in recent years American Muslim women are
increasingly taking on leadership roles on mosque boards, they are still
underrepresented and continue to have limited access to religious learning.
However,
a growing number of Muslim spaces provide an alternative culture. One I’ve been
studying is the Women’s Mosque of America, a multiracial women-only mosque in
Los Angeles. It exists alongside a small number of other alternative mosques
including women-led, mixed-gender and queer-affirming mosques in places ranging
from Berkeley, California, and Chicago to London, Copenhagen and Berlin.
What
is the Women’s Mosque of America?
The
Women’s Mosque of America was founded in 2015 by two South Asian American
Muslim women – comedy writer M Hasna Maznavi and attorney Sana Muttalib. It was
conceived as a space to empower Muslim women to take on active roles in their
individual community mosques and influence changes in a mosque culture that is
often unwelcoming to women.
The
mosque hosts monthly Friday prayers where women exclusively run the services.
One woman calls the adhan, or call to prayer, while another delivers the sermon
and leads the all-female congregation in prayer. Yet, as I explore in my
forthcoming book, the mosque’s contribution to creating a different kind of
Muslim community is not simply its placement of women in leadership roles, but
rather the way it elevates particular issues as worthy of concern in religious
communities.
For
example, with women at the helm of this mosque, the sermons focus on connecting
Islamic scriptures to women’s lived experiences in both their personal and
professional lives.
Topics
have ranged from sexual violence, divorce and motherhood to social justice
activism and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. As I learned in my
interviews with community members, congregants are eager to hear these types of
sermons, which they see as missing in their traditional mosque communities.
Women
in religious leadership roles
The
mosque promotes the idea that religious authority can be held by lay American
Muslim women, as opposed to only male religious scholars with traditional
credentials.
Most
of the women who deliver sermons and lead prayer at this mosque do not have
formal religious training or Arabic expertise. They are a racially and
ethnically diverse group who bring their various professional and community
activist experiences to their roles as religious authority figures.
The
mosque is committed to building community by flattening the hierarchy of
religious leadership. For example, after the prayer is complete, congregants
sit together in a circle with the prayer leader, asking her questions and
engaging in a general religious dialogue with one another.
Moreover,
the mosque is invested in using scriptural teachings to work toward social
justice causes in the US particularly with respect to anti-Black racism and
Islamophobia.
The
Women’s Mosque of America appeals to women who are dissatisfied with mainstream
American mosques and eager to take on more central roles in their religious
development. Its alternative culture also appeals to Muslim women who may have
otherwise turned away from their faith.
And
in providing opportunities for women to preach and lead prayer, I contend that
the Women’s Mosque of America pushes American Muslims to collectively reimagine
the very notion of religious community by raising important questions about
what a mosque is and whom it should be for.
Source:
Daily Excelsior
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Samar
Kamel, Egyptian Artist In Dubai Highlights Women’s Issues In Her Works
Egyptian artist Samar Kamel at the workshop in her
Dubai residence. Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
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May
07, 2022
From
using tissue papers, to nail polish and tea bags, Dubai-based artist Samar
Kamel has her own unique ways of delivering a message to the wider community.
The Egyptian artist who moved to Dubai 30 years ago with her husband, is an
author with two published works and curator of World Art Dubai (WAD). She said
that she was sitting in her studio, savouring a cup of tea, when the idea of
using tea bags for her paintings struck her.
Source:
Gulf News
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Vatican
Preparing For Possibility Of Women Swiss Guards
May
04, 2022
VATICAN
CITY: The new barracks of the Vatican Swiss guards will be built to accommodate
female members if Pope Francis or his successors allow women to join the elite
and colorfully dressed force.
Officials
of the Swiss foundation that is raising the estimated $46 million (45 million
Swiss Francs) to replace the current 150-year-old barracks signed a memorandum
of understanding with the Vatican’s Secretary of State on Wednesday.
“The
project includes single rooms with private bathrooms,” Riccardo Boscardin, an
executive of the foundation, said in the courtyard of the barracks after the
signing.
“There
are two reasons. One is because COVID-19 hit when the project started and the
second is the possibility of integrating women into the guard,” Boscardin said.
“But
this decision is not ours, but exclusively that of the Vatican and the pope,”
he said.
The
force, whose principal mission is to protect the pope, has been exclusively
male since its founding in 1506. The men are all Swiss citizens.
Francis,
85, has named women to a number of senior posts and management positions in the
Vatican administration and in March he introduced a landmark new constitution
that will allow any baptized lay Catholic, including women, to head most
Vatican departments.
The
Foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which supports the guard financially,
has already raised about 37 million francs and needs to raise about 7.5 million
more, Boscardin told Reuters.
He
said work was due to start in January, 2026 so the guards would not be
displaced during the 2025 Holy Year, when millions of pilgrims are expected to
visit the Vatican.
Because
of building restrictions involving historic buildings, the side of the barracks
that faces Rome, which surrounds the sovereign Vatican city-state, will be kept
or rebuilt exactly as it now.
Constructing
a totally new, ecologically friendly and energy-saving building, even if it
resembles the old one externally, would cost much less than renovating the
existing one, Boscardin said.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2075511/world
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Gujarat
Court Cites Hadith, “Most Detestable In The Sight Of God”, While Punishing Man
For Triple Talaq
May
7, 2022
Ahmedabad:
In punishing a government official for divorcing his wife by pronouncing the
prohibited instant triple talaq, a court in Palanpur cited religious texts to
state how Prophet Mohammed had conveyed that divorce is “most detestable in the
sight of God”.
On
Wednesday, additional chief judicial magistrate G S Darji handed down one-year
imprisonment to Sarfarazkhan Bihari (34), a Class I government official who had
pronounced triple talaq before his wife in 2019. The court held Bihari guilty
of violating the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019
along with other IPC charges. The practice of talaq-e-bidat was held invalid by
the Supreme Court and prohibited through a legislation by the Parliament in
2019.
When
it came to deciding the sentence, the court cited the Quranic philosophy of
divorce and further quoted the Hadith of the Prophet. After explaining various
accepted forms of divorce in Islam and three prevalent practices of talaq, the
court cited the Prophet’s warning as mentioned in a Hadith, “Al-Talaqu
indallah-I abghad al-mubahat”, meaning ‘divorce is most detestable in the sight
of God; abstain from it’.
The
court also quoted Jabir bin Abdullah as saying, “When the Messenger of Allah delivered
a Khutbah, his eyes would turn red, his voice would become loud, and his anger
would increase, until it was as if he was warning of an attacking army…” After
citing the texts, the court further observed, “Thus, the Quranic philosophy
presented by the Prophet also mentions that Allah hates divorce the most.
Considering this and the act of the offender of keeping extramarital relations
with another woman and then marrying for the second time against the wish of
the complainant (wife), the accused has committed an offence which cannot be
pardoned and ignored even if viewed from the saying of the Prophet and in the
sight of God.”
Source:
Times Of India
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Mayor
Sumbul Siddiqui: A Pakistani-American looks forward to continuing to make
Cambridge a more equitable and civically engaged community
7
May, 2022
NEW
YORK – This is a photo of the historic Cambridge City Hall building in the US
state of Massachusetts, which is lit up green for the month of May to recognize
Mental Health Awareness Month. This beautiful photo has been shared by the
Pakistani-American Mayor of Cambridge City Sumbul Siddiqui on her Twitter and
Facebook page.
As
Mayor, Sumbul Siddiqui looks forward to continuing to make Cambridge City a
more equitable and Civically engaged community. Her leadership skills,
experience in community advocacy and her background as a native Cambridge give
her an authentic and unique perspective on Cambridge's politics.
Sumbul
Siddiqui, the first Muslim Mayor in the history of Cambridge City Council, came
to the United States from Karachi with her twin brothers and parents at the age
of two. She grew up in Cambridge, MA, from where she did her high school. Sumbul Siddiqui holds a bachelor's degree in
public policy and American institutions from Brown University, New Jersey, and
a JD degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Ms.
Sumbul Siddique serve as a legal aid attorney for low-income residents in
Greater Boston. She also worked as law clerk and law clerk intern. Then, she
entered in politics. She has been Mayor since 2020. Ms Siddiqui is currently
serving her second term as mayor, and third on the Cambridge City Council.
Mayor
Sumbul Siddiqui earned a 2020 NAACP award, Women’s Bar Association of
Massachusetts Emerging Women Leaders in the Law 2021 award, South Asian Bar
Association 2021 Member of the Year, Margaret Fuller House 2021 Gala award
recipient, and Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Champion award.
Historically,
the Cambridge City was named to honor the famous British University of
Cambridge.The importance of the city is further enhanced by the fact that USA's
and globally famous educational institutions, such as Harvard University, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Lisle, and the
Hult International Business School, are located in Cambridge City.
Source:
Daily Pakistan
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mosque-american-religious-los-angeles/d/126953