Defying mainstream position, controversial Moroccan preacher okays mixed-gender prayer

Sheikh Abdellah Nahari, a controversial but popular Moroccan cleric, has declared women should be allowed to pray in mosques without any screen separating them from male worshippers.

Nahari, a prolific user of social media platforms, made the remarks in a video posted on YouTube.

Asked whether women are allowed to pray with men without sequestration, the Moroccan cleric said that mixed-gender prayers were allowed in Islam, provided that "women pray behind men".

Allowing women to pray behind men in mosques is a form of openness we really need

Nahari claimed women used to pray behind the Prophet Mohammad, calling on people to allow women to pray inside the same place of worship, and at the same time, as men.

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The imam of Kawtar Mosque in Ouajda added that allowing women to pray behind men in mosques is "a form of openness we really need".

However, despite his seemingly progressive stance, Nahari said: "We have to worry more about mixed crowds inside buses and souks than inside mosques."

Nahari, who has been nicknamed "the white wolf" in Morocco, has caused controversy in the past, and his attitudes can be a paradoxical combination of progressiveness, populism, hate speech and bizarre explanations for natural disasters.

Mainstream position

Before Nahari, a controversial Moroccan Islamist preacher named Abdel Bari Zamzami had gone further, denying the existence of any Islamic text that prevented women from leading men in prayers, giving Friday sermons or praying together with men in the mosque.

Last November, Ani Zonneveld, founder and president of the faith-based human rights organization Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) visited Morocco and stirred controversy over her advocacy for female imams.

The Malaysian-American activist called for mixed-gender prayers, the right of Moroccan women to lead prayers in mosques and to give sermons during Friday prayers, saying that her principles were based on the Quran.

Women can pray in mosques as long as there is no risk of them 'tempting' others or being tempted; are not wearing perfume; and a door is set aside in the mosque for women to enter and exit  - Islam Q&A

According to Islam Q&A, a mainstream Islamic online resource, women are allowed to go to the mosque only if certain conditions are met.

These included that there is no risk of them "tempting" others or being tempted; that they should go out not wearing perfume; that a door should be set aside in the mosque for women to enter and exit; and that women's rows should be behind the men, preferably in the very back.

Women should also leave the mosque before the men, the website said, and the men should wait until the women have dispersed to their homes before themselves leaving.

The controversy of women's role in worship and preaching is not limited to Islam, and has caused intense debates in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and among Jewish clerics of various denominations.