The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Wednesday clarified before Supreme Court that there is no prohibition on Muslim women entering Mosques and offering Namaz or congregational prayers.
However, the board has said “free intermixing of genders in the same line or common space is not in conformity with the position prescribed in Islam”.
In its statement, the board said through its affidavit before the Supreme Court has said: “The Board is consistent with its opinion in terms of Islamic texts that there is no prohibition on Muslim women entering Mosques and offering Namaz or congregational prayers. However, free intermixing of genders in the same line or common space is not in conformity with the position prescribed in Islam and that needs to be taken care of by segregation of space within the premises by the management committee, if possible.”
The board has filed its response to the second petition before SC seeking direction for Muslim women’s entry into Mosques for offering Namaz.
It also clarified that “the example cited by the petitioner in the recent petition of Tawaf in Mecca around the Blackstone to build upon the argument of Namazis misleading vis-à-visthe offering of Namaz”.
The board has told SC: “Even in Mecca in all the mosques around the Holy Kaaba, the practice of segregation of men and women is in place. Similarly, depending upon the facility available in the existing mosques in India, the management committees are free to create such segregated spaces for women if the existing building/space permits such arrangements”.
Besides, the board through its response before SC also appealed to the Muslim community at large that “wherever new mosques are constructed, this issue of making appropriate space for women be kept in mind.”
