Saudi clerics want to restrict women praying at Mecca

[Jacaylbaro]

RIYADH, 29 Aug 2006 (Reuters)-- Saudi clerics want to impose restrictions on women praying at Islam’s holiest shrine in Mecca, one of the few places where male and female worshippers can intermingle.

 

But women activists in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of the religion where a strict version of Islam is state orthodoxy, say the idea is discriminatory and have vowed to oppose it.

 

At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the mosque which pilgrims walk around seven times during the haj pilgrimage according to ancient rites established by Prophet Mohammad.

 

Plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would place women in a distant section of the mosque while men would still be able to pray in the key space.

 

“The area is very small and so crowded. So we decided to get women out of the ’sahn’ (Kaaba area) to a better place where they can see the Kaaba and have more space,” said Osama Al Bar, head of the Institute for Haj Research.

 

”Some women thought it wasn’t good, but from our point of view it will be better for them ... We can sit with them and explain to them what the decision is (about),” he said. The decision is not final and could be reversed, he added.

 

Pushing and shoving is common in the tight space around the Kaaba where thousands of pilgrims crowd during the haj season.

 

The plans are likely to provoke a furore among Muslim women in countries whose Islamic traditions are more liberal than Saudi Arabia.

 

Ordinary Muslims say it as a basic right to be able to pray as close as possible to the Kaaba which Islam regards as the place where God’s presence is most felt on Earth. It is towards the Kaaba that Muslims around the world turn when praying.

 

“Both men and women have the right to pray in the ’House of God’. Men have no right to take it away,” said Suhaila Hammad, Saudi woman member of a body of world Muslim scholars.

 

“Men and women mix when they circumambulate the Kaaba, so do they want to make us do that somewhere else too?” she asked. ”This is discrimination against women.”

 

The Grand Mosque is one of the few places where men and women can pray together in Islam although technically there are separate spaces for each gender throughout the vast complex.

 

Religious police charged with imposing order according to Saudi Arabia’s austere Wahhabi brand of Islam often harass women who decide to pray outside the prescribed areas.

 

Historian Hatoun Al Fassi said the move to restrict women’s prayer in the mosque would be a first in Islamic history.

 

“Perhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques that’s their ultimate aim,” she said, adding the religious authorities recently restricted women’s access at the Prophet’s tomb in Medina.

 

Source: Khaleej Times

[N.O.R.F]

They back tracked. It didnt go ahead

[Som@li]

^this was a very ****** move in the first place, and wouldnt take off.

[Som@li]

dp

[Ibtisam]

Does it matter how close you pray to the Kaaba? If they are being offered a better place, with better space, without perverted men taking opportunity of the crowd they should be glade.

[N.O.R.F]

*shakes head*

[Som@li]

Xanthus, there should not be a restriction in Kaaba, it is the only mosque where males/females mix allowed. Woman have right to get a close look to the holly place.

[Jacaylbaro]

Those Saudi family are really weird .... restrictions on women went too far that they interfered the prayers in Ka'bah too

[NGONGE]

^^ I'm sure the Saudi Royal family can be blamed for many things but this does not look like one of them, saaxib. It's the well-meaning Mullahs.

 

Xanthus,

 

Perverts in the house of god? Surely not!

 

Still, it's unfair that women travelling thousands of miles to perform the pilgrimage cannot even get close to the Kaaba just because of the anxiety of some Mullah for her chastity and well-being! I'm glad the decision has been reversed. Got to give those scholars some credit for changing their mind. Better still, they deserve praise for constantly thinking of better ways to ease the burden on pilgrims.

[Ibtisam]

So what if it is the only place men & women can mix, some sick people have realised this, take advantage of it, and ruined a place made for worship, making it to meeting place for other things. Not everyone goes there to pray and wash their sin's away. Looking at the Ka,aab is not the point, maybe they need to organise women only times, where they can go and look, (if looking I all they want). I believe the reason women are objecting to this because of the wide spread believe that you get blessings from touching it, spraying perfume or it or kissing it repeatedly and crying over it (after they've nearly killed people trying to get there.)

 

Times are changing and it may mean that things have to change to protect the society as whole. I do not think it is something they just felt like doing for the sake of it, the uluma in general are just trying to make things better for everyone in the long run, so that they can do their hijja in the best conditions possible.

 

Ngonge

lool, Yes I am.

[Jacaylbaro]

A woman told me once that she went to the Hajj and one day she went to check her emails ,,, she went to an internet cafe and they told her it is only for men ,,,, she couldn't find a place (a one single place) she could check her emails until she came back ,,,,,,,,,

 

 

IS THAT FAIR ?????????????

[Ibtisam]

^^^when you are in Rome, act like Romans. Meesho somalia maah, she cannot run around like she owns the place, I'm sure she will not turn up in maarfash or maakhaad and ask for a seat, and then be surprised that it is only for men. So yes it is fair, in that society that is the norm. She can get her husband/ maaxrum to send the e-mail for her if it is so important or stay in a hotel with Internet access in her room.

[Jacaylbaro]

it is not the norm in saudis ,,, it is an imposed procedure and ppl dont like ,, they just accept it by force or they face prison or punishment.

 

Where da hell is fair in the Islamic view that women cannot check their emails without Muxrim ???

 

that must be funny Walahi ,,,

 

 

At least there should be some places special only for women ,,,, as long as those ones are for men.

[Malika]

That would have been outrageous!,women have all the right to the Kaaba as men,if men cant control their urges ,that shouldnt be taken on women.

 

Its like saying,women deserve to be rape just for being at the wrong place,or wear the wrong outfit..arrgh

 

Men!,animals!

[N.O.R.F]

Better still, they deserve praise for constantly thinking of better ways to ease the burden on pilgrims.

True