Islam and the Americas by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813060132
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2016-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Gender Dynamics and Teachings at the Mosque

On Fridays Maya Muslims get together to pray and listen to a sermon at the mosque. The mosque is a modest room made of concrete located at the end of the main unpaved road in the shantytown. Maya Muslim men tend to arrive earlier to straighten up the place; they usually dust and sweep the floor. After cleaning up the room they discuss the topic to be addressed during the sermon. Before the sermon or jutba begins, one of the men, the muezzin, recites the adhan or call for prayer, a practice exclusive to Muslim men.7 Around twenty Maya Muslim families gather for the occasion. Children are not excluded, and the youngest enjoy the time playing both inside and outside the mosque. The oldest children are taught to perform ablution or purification by the adults before entering the mosque. Their parents patiently teach them how to perform wudu; that is, how to clean their faces, hair, ears, arms, and feet before prayer. According to the Hadith, children are expected to learn prayer at the age of seven.8 Infants are carried by their mothers, held closely to their backs with the help of a shawl. Single women are allowed to attend the mosque; however, they rarely attend Friday prayers, preferring instead to stay at their parents’ homes, performing routine household chores.

In a number of Muslim and non-Muslim countries, mosques are mainly male spaces, and women are discouraged or even forbidden from visiting them. This is not the case among Maya Muslims in southern Mexico, where the mosque is a space open to all Muslims. However, inside the mosque a curtain separates women from men. Women have their place on the right side of the mosque, while men remain on the left. Everyone must enter the mosque barefoot and with head and body covered. Due to a lack of access to proper covering clothes or hijab, indigenous women cover their heads with pieces of fabric they have turned into veils for the occasion. Men may or may not cover their heads, depending on their access to Islamic clothing. When other Muslim converts from Mexico City visit the Maya Muslim community, the visitors occasionally bring Islamic clothing as presents. However, the number of items is limited and does not fulfill the needs of the entire Maya Muslim community.

Once the jutba begins, a man—preferably one who is considered the most knowledgeable by the rest of the community (and the same individual most of the time)—reads a sura (chapter) from the Quran or Hadith, Islamic sacred texts. The reading takes place in Spanish, followed by comments and discussions in both Spanish and Tsotsil.9 However, discussions in both languages are often mixed with isolated words in Arabic.10

More than once I witnessed how the curtain separating women from men disappeared when women interrupted men’s comments on the sermon. Interruptions were made to correct or share a thought or opinion about a specific interpretation of the sacred texts. While this dynamic was surprising to me, Maya Muslim converts see it as a common practice in which everyone engages.

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