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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Me and the Mosque

I watched this documentry on Vision TV today ( There will be a repeat tomorrow night at 11 PM). The doucmentry featureed mainstream Muslim Scholars like Sh. Abdullah Adhami among others.

The focus of the documentry was on the exclusion of women from the mosque ( Barriers, No Women Board mmembers , etc.). I liked it because I think it is important that we have critisism of our Cultural Practices ( which are confused with Religon in many cases) from within the mainstream cicrles of Islam rathar than the fringes ( read Progressives). Our lack of self critisim makes it easy for progressives to catograize "us" as one group. I am also sure that some Muslims will be not happy that issues like these are being externalized. However I feel that by making such doucmentries you are not giving Islam a bad name , you are actually drawing the lines between Islam and Cultural Practices. Anyways I hope you all watch it!!

“I pray in a room where there is a one-way mirror so the men cannot see me. I'm told [women] are a distraction.”

Like millions of Muslim women around the world, journalist and filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz cherishes Islam's emphasis on social justice and spiritual equality between the sexes. So it came as a terrible blow when her Regina, Sask. mosque forced women to pray in a separate room, away from the men.

“The mosque was the most important part of my life, and now I didn't feel welcome,” she says. “I felt a strong sense of spiritual loneliness.”

In her National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentary Me and the Mosque , Nawaz asks why so many Muslim places of worship in 21st century Canada enforce the strict separation of men and women. The search for answers takes her to mosques all over North America, and deep into the history and traditions of Islam.

VisionTV presents the national television premiere of Me and the Mosque on Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 10 p.m. ET. The broadcast repeats on Thursday, Nov. 24 at 11 p.m. ET.

An insightful and often amusing look at the past and present role of women in Islam, Me and the Mosque features both whimsical animation and in-depth interviews with people on all sides of the issue. The film was produced through the NFB's Reel Diversity program, a national, annual competition for emerging filmmakers of colour.

As Islamic scholars reveal to Nawaz, early Muslim society was egalitarian: both sexes prayed together, and women played prominent roles in the community. However, over the last two centuries in particular, women have been increasingly segregated.

Today, more than 90 percent of Muslims in Canada come from Muslim countries where men and women never pray together, and mosques here naturally cater to these expectations. Of the approximately 140 mosques in this country, an estimated two-thirds require women to pray behind barriers, partitions or curtains. Frustrated by their exclusion, many young women of Nawaz's generation have turned away from organized worship altogether.

In the course of her odyssey, Nawaz speaks to men with traditional views on the separation of the sexes, and women yearning to play an equal part in worship. She meets the architect of a new mosque in Surrey, B.C., interviews an American writer who fought publicly for the right to pray alongside men at her mosque in West Virginia, and hosts an eye-opening panel discussion on this issue at a gathering in Gimli, Man.

As one female activist tells her: “Every woman who has the courage of her convictions has to get up and say no. You can ignore me as long as you want, but here I am to stay.”

Me and the Mosque was written and directed by Zarqa Nawaz, and produced for the National Film Board of Canada by Joe MacDonald. The executive producers are Graydon McCrea and Michael Scot
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1 comment:

mezba said...

The biggest mosque in Dhaka, Baitul Muqarram, has a sign at the top saying 'women not allowed to enter'. This is in direct contradiction to the hadith, "When the wife of one of you asks about going to the mosque, do not stop her." (Bukhari), and the ayah in the Quran, {O you who believe (Muslims)! When the call is proclaimed for the prayer on the day of Friday, come to the remembrance of Allah [The religious talk (khutba) and prayer (salat)] and leave off business (and every other thing.) That is better for you if you did but know!} (V.62:9)

11/24/2005 09:58:00 PM

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