Women-led mosque opens in Denmark
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/12/women-led-mosque-opens-in-denmark
(Février 2016)
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.
Khankan, a well-known commentator and author in Denmark, said there was “an Islamic tradition allowing women to be imams” and that most of the criticism was based on ignorance.