Riyadh - Saudi clerics want to impose restrictions on women praying at Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca, one of the few places where men and women worshippers can intermingle.
But women activists in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of the religion where a strict version of Islam is state orthodoxy, say the idea is discriminatory and have vowed to oppose it.
At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the mosque which pilgrims walk around seven times during the haj pilgrimage according to ancient rites established by Prophet Mohammed.
Plans by the all-men committee overseeing the holy sites would place women in a distant section of the mosque while men would still be able to pray in the key space.
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"The area is very small and crowded. So we decided to get women out of the "sahn" (Kaaba area) to a better place where they can see the Kaaba and have more space," said Osama al-Bar, head of the Institute for Haj Research.
Pushing and shoving is common in the tight space around the Kaaba where thousands of pilgrims crowd during the haj season.
The plans are likely to provoke a furore among Muslim women in countries whose Islamic traditions are more liberal than Saudi Arabia. Historian Hatoun al-Fassi said the move to restrict women's prayer in the mosque would be a first in Islamic history.
"Perhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques that's their ultimate aim," she said, adding the religious authorities recently restricted women's access at the Prophet's tomb in Medina. - Reuters
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This article was originally published on page 6 of Daily News on August 30, 2006
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