The architecturally designed spaces and socially negotiated places for and of Muslim women in community mosques in the United States emerge as a particularly understudied problem in the encounter between Middle Eastern architecture and American religious practice.
“‘No, sister, you can’t go in that way! There’s a back door around the corner.’ I can’t tell you how many times those words were said to me over the years as I tried to enter through the front door of many mosques around the United States. There seems to be this unwritten, yet nationally recognized and practiced, tradition of leaving the worst space for the separate women’s prayer hall. From collecting funds to replacing the soiled carpet and repainting the chipped walls, to silently walking in the front entrance and ignoring the disapproving glares as they make their way to the balcony rather than submitting to the back prayer room turned childcare, through the years I’ve seen women protest against this dismissive treatment in a variety of ways.”
--“Women in Mosques” last modified November 21, 2010
The debate on gender equality in the mosque has been a heated argument for over a century. Profoundly, the questioning of gender and sacred space ignites usually after Muslims visit the Ka‘ba in Mecca. As the worshippers circulate the Ka‘ba, make “tawaf” together, and fulfill one of the five obligatory pillars of Islam, they are visually connected with the notion of equality in this holy site. The Ka‘ba and the surrounding mosque are the sites of revelation, a powerful symbol of parity, race, gender, ethnicity and equality between women and men gathered together for prayer in a shared space. Nevertheless, the 1500 American mosques and Islamic centers built throughout the United States continue to struggle over the issue of gender and space.
"The architecturally designed spaces and socially negotiated places for and of Muslim women in community mosques in the United States emerge as a particularly understudied problem in the aforementioned encounter between Middle Eastern architecture and American religious practice"
Muslim-American communities, the majority of whom are American-born Muslims or American converts, have transplanted the architectural lexicons of mosques located in the Middle East wholesale into U.S. urban landscapes. This trans-continental attempt at architectural mobility from the Middle East to the U.S., however, does not come without issues. The architecturally designed spaces and socially negotiated places for and of Muslim women in community mosques in the United States emerge as a particularly understudied problem in the aforementioned encounter between Middle Eastern architecture and American religious practice. Oftentimes these retrofit buildings raise specific questions on the American Muslim identity struggling with the interwoven issues of religion and culture that are brought over from Muslim countries, such as, where do the men stand? How much space is allocated for women, and what about children? This infographic captures moments of Women’s Places and Spaces in the Contemporary American Mosque.
