Much has been said about the fact that in many mosques. provision of women’s space is little more than an afterthought. I have been in many such places, and virtually gave up mosque attendance when my kids were small. But check out the mosque in ISNA Canada’s headquarters. Ma sha Allah. It has ample women’s space, decent washroom/wudu’ facilities, and a separate area for moms with tinies who attend the prayers.

view of prayer area

The separate room for moms with little ‘uns has a CCTV so if the tinies aren’t raising too much of a ruckus, they can still hear khutbahs etc.

Apparently they used that room for the men’s i’tikaf in Ramadan a few years back (grr!) but now they build booths along the sides of the men’s area for the brothers who want to observe that particular Sunnah.

moms

The decor of the mosque is quite simple, but refreshing. The dome has a little more decoration.

dome

A few years ago someone was researching this issue and thought I would be in the pro-curtain faction. Nope. The Sunnah is for the men to be in the front and the women to be in the back, but in the same space. I can’t tell you the number of time I have been in places where the women’s section is behind a huge, opaque barrier or even in a different room (bonus points if it is on a different floor…) and it is very hard to follow the prayers even if the PA system is functioning normally.

I wish all mosques could be like this…