A Muslim couple filed a petition in the Supreme Court and pleads that women should also be allowed to enter mosques and should also be allowed to offer namaz inside the mosques.
The couple also asked the court to declare the prohibition of women entering the mosques in India as “illegal and unconstitutional” as it is violating the fundamental rights that are being guaranteed under the constitution.
Counsel Ashutosh Dubey said that the Quran does not mention any gender segregation, he added, “….such practices are not only repugnant to the basic dignity of a woman as an individual, but also violative of their fundamental rights…”
The petition was brought before the Union Government, The Ministry of Minority Affairs, The Central Wafk Council, The Maharashtra State Board of Wafks, and The All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
The petitioners added that there is no verse in the Quran that says women are prohibited from entering a mosque and are not allowed to offer prayers inside them, and added that the Muslim beliefs say that both men and women are equal.
Currently, women are not allowed to enter mosques and offer prayers inside them, which is caused by the Jamaat-e-Islami and Mujahid Denominations, but according to the petition, they are barred from mosques under the predominant Sunni Faction.
In the petition, it also said that in the mosques where women are allowed to enter and are allowed to offer prayers in, there are separate entrances for them and special enclosures that allow them to offer prayers.
The petition said that there should be no gender discrimination and Muslim women should be allowed to enter and pray inside all mosques in the country.
The petition also said that the practice in Mecca says, “the faithful, both men and women, together circumambulate the Kaaba”.
Petitioners added that the most sacred mosques in the world embrace both men and women.
As a support for their petition, they cited the recent judgment that was made by the Supreme Court of Kerala, which allowed women to enter the Sabarimala Temple.
The petitioners said, “The hon’ble court in the case of Sabraimala held that ‘religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women as it is against human dignity’. Prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries.”