Why do women pray in a separate area of the mosque?

So that during prayer all attention belongs to God and not to the people around. This is not discrimination, because men and women each have their own area with equal rights.

Anyone who sees only the men’s prayer hall in a mosque may easily ask where the women are. In the women’s area one could just as well ask why no men are sitting there. Each has its own space, both pray to the same God, and both have the same rights. So this is not about rank but about sensible order.

The reason lies in human nature. When men and women pray close beside each other, attention easily drifts from God to the people around. One notices clothes, looks and glances. This can be seen at many services where men and women sit together. People come to honour God and yet find themselves occupied with the appearance of others.

Prayer in Islam, by contrast, calls for complete devotion. The first verse above names humility in prayer as a mark of the believers. The second reminds us that prayer is meant to keep us from wrong and lead us to the remembrance of God. Anything that distracts from this weakens the prayer.

That is why men and women have prayed in separate rows since the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), as the hadith above shows. The separation is not distrust of women, nor does it belittle them. It protects the devotion of both, so that every person can be wholly with God in prayer.