Imam Khalid Latif

Imam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, click over to the Islamic Center at New York University or visit his author page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author e-mail alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

My wife and I were driving home late last night and decided to find a mosque to pray in on our way. There is a great emphasis on praying during the night throughout the month of Ramadan, but the last 10 nights have that much more of an emphasis.

We stopped at a mosque that we usually don't go to and when we walked into the main entrance it seemed like there were only men coming in. I asked someone if there was an area for women to pray and how to get there. He said there was and pointed us in the direction of what lead to a shoe rack. He then asked someone else how to get to the women's area and this second young man told us to go outside and around the corner where we would find a back entrance that led into the area designated for women.

Priya and I walked together and as we turned the corner we stumbled over a hose and breathed in the fresh scent of garbage from three cans placed conveniently there. We then turned into a pitch black darkness that was illuminated all of a sudden with a sensor light that turned itself off almost as quickly as it turned itself on. If you've ever seen the back allies in the Spider-Man movies, this "women's entrance" would make them look like a well-lit park. I told Priya that I would meet her right at the door when she was done praying so she wouldn't have to walk through that darkness by herself.

I never really understood why some mosques are so comfortable in creating spaces for women that really are just disrespectful, both of the women themselves and the ritual that they are coming to undertake. Prayer is the most important pillar of Islam, and as a maintainer of a house of God, how could one justifiably think they are honoring that responsibility by providing a space that makes the congregant feel as if they made a mistake in coming to pray there? It's not your house, it's God's house. And if I'm coming there to worship God, you have to provide for me the best possible atmosphere in doing so, whether I am a man or a woman.....to continue reading please click here