LOS ANGELES — A downtown Los Angeles mosque that forbids men from attending is likely the first of its kind in the United States.
More than 100 women gathered Friday at the interfaith Pico-Union Project for prayer marking the beginning of the Women’s Mosque of America, a nonprofit hoping to create space where Muslim women can learn and connect with other women.
“Muslim women haven’t had a forum,” Yasmeen Ruhge, a cardiologist from Pasadena, said as she waited for the service to begin. “When we go to the mosque, we have to sit on one side. Not that we aren’t equal, but this gives us a freedom to talk as all women and create an independent role.”
Women-only mosques may exist in China, Chile and India, but Muslim leaders say this is the first one known in the United States.
Such mosques allow women greater opportunities to ask the imam questions afterward. On Friday, a female speaker addressed women’s issues and held a discussion circle after the service.