Let These Women Pray
In an uprising reminiscent of the lunch-counter protests of the 1960s, women at one of Washington D.C.'s most popular mosques are copying the tactics of the civil-rights movement, and refusing to follow rules that ban them from praying with the men. Asra Q. Nomani on the arrest threats and outrage that followed.
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The Islamic Center of Washington.
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Fatima Thompson leads protesters through the gates of the Islamic Center of Washington om February, 2010, accompanied by Jannah bint Hanna, Naila Abdul Qayyum, and Women eNews journalist Julia Marsh.
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Three American-Muslim women converts (right) protest gender segregation by praying in the main prayer hall. Two supporters stand beside them.
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The front of the Islamic Center of Washington, where the imam prays.
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A seven-foot-high partition wall separates the section designated for women in the main prayer hall of the Islamic Center of Washington.
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Three American-Muslim women converts pray in the rear of the main prayer hall, the wooden partition for the women's section to their right. Supporter Kareem Elbayer looks back towards them.
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The three American-Muslim converts and two of their supporters create a women's prayer line in the front for the congregational prayer. Women and children from a tour group of about 100 Muslims from the Islamic Society of Western Maryland join the prayer line, not realizing that it's a protest.
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Washington, D.C. police officer R.S. Lowery Jr. stands by after he told protesters they had to leave the mosque or face arrest. A mosque official stands in the foreground.
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Protesters and police outside the Islamic Center of Washington.
Shibli Nomani
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