Prof. Nazneen Barkath, who has been inducted as a member of the Masjid Jamaath of the M.S.S.Wakf Board College Mosque at K. K. Nagar here disapproves of separate mosques for women, a move initiated elsewhere in Tamil Nadu. Barkath says Islam and the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, allowed Muslim women to be part of the congregation at the mosques and separate enclosures could be provided within the same mosque. ‘Separate mosques would violate the Islamic spirit and further alienate Muslim women’, she observed.

Prof. Barkath who taught English at the local Meenakshi Government College for Women for nearly 20 years before being appointed Principal at the Government Arts College at Ramnad, told Islamic Voice over telephone that she did not find Muslim men opposed to granting of rights to Muslim women. ‘Only the traditions have to be broken and women have to be inducted into mosque committees. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Masjid Jamaaths are the basic unit of social organisation among Muslims and play the role of panchayaths in the lives of Muslims. Jamaaths would be better in empathising with the condition of the women if there are Muslim women on them,’ she added.

Barkath’s nomination was resented by United Muslim Jamaath of Madurai which controls several of the 89 mosques in the City and held the step un-Islamic. But the M.S.S Wakf Board College Mosque Committee itself took the decision of inducting her and thus became the first mosque in Tamil Nadu, and possibly India, to take in a woman member.

Barkath also opposed the demand by women to secure their right to be taken as a tussle between Muslim men and women and said only after sitting on the committee she could understand that majority of Muslim men favoured equal rights. She told Islamic Voice that she found all the mosques in the United States setting apart separate enclosures (either cellars, upper floors or ante-chambers) for women to pray. ‘If it is allowed in the US, why not in India’, she questioned.

Barkath regularly prays at a mosque close to her house which provides separate space for women.
Barkath said, she had been struggling to get the rights of maintenance, Mehr (dower) for Muslim brides for the last 20 years and said she felt strongly about the plight of issueless Muslim widows who were treated unfairly in some Muslim homes. She said while Muslim bridegrooms postpone the payment of Mehr to their wives, they extort huge amount of cash and gold in dowry under the influence of Indian customs and found the ulema apathetic towards this grotesque anomaly.

The 59-year old retired professor who has three sons, said she will continue to fight for the rights of Muslim women within the framework of Islamic law. She hailed the modern ‘nikahnama’ proposed for adoption by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and said she favoured early reforms leading to the annulment of the provision of three talaqs in a row uttered by men and held it ‘un-Islamic’ She also hailed the appointment of a woman (i.e., advocate Badar Sayeed) as the chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board by Chief Minister Jayalalitha.

Incidentally, M.S.S. Waqf Board College is the only college run by a Waqf Board in the country.

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