Denmark Opens Its First Women-led Mosque

In an interesting development in Denmark, the first women-led mosque has opened. This can only be a good sign for those who want Islam to adopt modern, progressive attitudes. As the Guardian reports:

Scandinavia’s first female-led mosque has opened in Copenhagen in a bid to challenge “patriarchal structures” and create debate and dialogue, its founder has said.

Sherin Khankan, born in Denmark to a Syrian father and a Finnish mother, said that while all activities at the Mariam mosque except Friday prayers would be open to both men and women, all imams would be female.

“We have normalised patriarchal structures in our religious institutions. Not just in Islam, but also within Judaism and Christianity and other religions. And we would like to challenge that,” she said.

Reactions from the city’s Muslim community have mostly been positive, with negative feedback “moderate”, she said.

Some similar projects have gained traction in other countries. It will be worth keeping an eye on this to gauge its success.

[caption id="attachment_6185" align="aligncenter" width="640"] freeimages.com / Mo'men Moukhtar[/caption]