Many of the women in our community want to pray at Makkah Mosque yet the doors are closed, preventing access to pray in congregation. The response I was given was as follows: not many women attend the prayers. However what is incredibly discerning to me are those who want to pray, but are not provided with entry. Even if it is just a handful of women. If the doors are open, this could provide potentially a safe haven and sanctuary for the sisters in our community and fuel a more cohesive and stable Islamic community, for the youth also. I ask the committee to reconsider this decision especially during the holy month of Ramadan as this is when the masjid is at its busiest.
The potential reasoning as to the doors being locked is that there is insufficient monitoring of the women’s entrance which could perhaps pose as a security threat to the masjid. However, this could be resolved with more sisters volunteering to ensure safety is reached during jamaat times. Similarly there is already CCTV installed in the Masjid, so if one was to monitor this the security threat could be reduced.

This petition will create awareness of the growing demand of many women in our local community wanting to pray and Inshallah change will be made in response.