INDIA: A group of Muslim women, exasperated by sexist Islamic clerics, have decided to build and run their own mosque in southern Tamil Nadu state, greatly upsetting the male-dominated community.
The mosque in Parambu village, 250 miles south of the state capital, Madras, which is well known in the region for its liberal attitude towards women, will be traditional, with minarets and headed by a female maulvi or priest well versed in the Koran and Islamic tenets.
"The decision [to build the mosque] was taken after we found male-dominated jamaats [Muslim dispute settlement forums] handing down discriminatory verdicts in family disputes, especially in divorce matters," said Sherifa, the convenor of Chaaya (Shadow), a newly founded group to empower Muslim women.
The fledgling organisation has urged women not to accept divorce notices that come from the Muslim dispute settlement bodies and take cognisance only of court orders.
Muslim men can keep four wives at one time.
Opinion is divided in the community on whether the women are justified in building their own mosque.
Mr Mohammed Sikander, a jamaat office-bearer, said that normally women were not allowed into mosques as their presence could disturb men during prayers.
But jamaats, he declared, had been asked to settle disputes outside mosques so that they could hear the women's side, rendering an all-female mosque irrelevant.
But Mr Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, vice-chairman of the influential All India Muslim Personnel Law Board, said there was no harm in women constructing such a mosque, and they had every right to do so.