'Women-friendly' mosques praised

A directory of 100 "women-friendly" mosques in England has been launched today.

The document awards star ratings to mosques judged by a series of requirements including providing separate prayer space to women.

Other criteria include services and activities for women, an imam accessible to women - or a woman scholar - women holding office on mosque committees and the inclusion of women in decision making at operational and strategic levels in the mosque.

The directory, by the inter-faith and conflict resolution organisation Faith Matters contains 50 mosques which have met all five criteria and 50 where four of the standards have been met.

Researchers for the directory assessed 486 mosques in order to draw up the directory.

The list of criteria was reached after consulting Muslim women in London, Coventry, Derby, Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford.

Fiyaz Mughal, founder and director of Faith Matters, said: "This project is the first of its kind to focus on the needs of women and their access to, and participation on the governance and day to day functioning of the Mosque.

"We hope the directory will provide key reference points for other institutions to improve upon so that they can build on the best practice examples that are celebrated here today."

Batool Al-Toma, of the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group, said: "This project must be hailed as a welcome and useful exercise for the whole of the Muslim community in the UK.

"Secure and safe places for the performance of prayer for women are long overdue and will be warmly welcomed by women who have been struggling to deliver on these sought after requirements for several decades."