Mosques of Their Own The long, little-known history of Muslim women in communal religious life.

Muslims have observed three Ramadans so far under pandemic conditions. Community is vitally important during the holiday, and negotiating its loss has been a challenge for many believers, including the women who participated in a 2020 study about Muslim practices during COVID-19. Some expressed frustration with power dynamics in traditional mosques, where women have been historically marginalized in both spatial and political terms. To address that marginalization, Muslim activists have taken up the charge of advocating for women-inclusive and women-only mosques. Asra Nomani, an American Muslim woman of Indian heritage, has long campaigned on behalf of herself and other Muslim women for a better-quality worship experience and improved access for them to mosque governing bodies. The brains behind the “Islamic Bill of Rights of Women in Mosques,” Nomani states that women have the Islamic right to enter mosques through the main door and worship in musalla, the main sanctuary freely and without physical barriers or screens. She also advocates for the right of women to hold leadership positions, lead prayer, and address the whole congregation