responding to the needs of Muslims in Europe; and
(3) autonomous associations organized by women
and bringing together Muslim women from differ-
ent ethnic, national, linguistic or ideological back-
grounds to serve women’s particular needs and
interests or to promote needs of the the broader
Muslim community.Informal women’s groups
The local mosque is most often the natural arena
for women’s activities, and in many cases it has
taken on a new importance in a Western context.
The mosque has become the place where women
can meet regularly with others who share the same
faith, language, and culture. Increasingly, mosque
activities seem to reflect a recent, slowly growing
trend toward solidifying a collective Muslim iden-
tity in the public domain, and often the mosque has
become the main center for community functions
as well as for religious instruction for men, women,
and children. Teaching activities in the local
mosques usually include Qur±àn classes for girls;
such classes are quite often, at least on the basic
level, organized and carried out by women. How-
ever, some mosques – like a few South-Asian Deo-
bandi and most Tabligh-oriented mosques – are
still closed to women; women belonging to these
circles have, to some extent, recourse to other are-
nas for organized religious and social activities.
This first category primarily includes informal
women’s groups linked by gender-segregated par-
ticipation in annual religious festivals and rituals
that previously took place in private homes. These
groups meet regularly through the year, providing
if†àrfor women during Ramadan, arranging maw-
lid(Prophet’s birthday) celebrations in the women’s
section of the mosques, and sometimes organizing
women’s ™ajj groups. When needed, they perform
particular rituals, such as ≠aqìqa celebrations for a
newborn child or the recitation of the whole Qur±àn
during Ramadan or on the occasion of a death, as
is often the case in South Asian Brelwi mosques. In
the Shì≠ìcommunity, women’s groups meet on a
regular basis in private homes for majlis-i ≠azà
(mourning assemblies) during the month of
Mu™arram. Mu™arram activities in the women’s
section of the ™usayniyya (mosque) are often exten-
sive and include recitation of religious poetry and
preaching by the women themselves. All these
groups, which organize traditional ritual activities,
have had to take into account their new setting and
the long distance traveled to reach it; women have
thus developed social networks and new organizing
skills in order to fulfill their wish to participate and716 religious associations
perform. First-generation immigrants seem to be
the most faithful participants in these informal
groups.
Local mosques may also make room for women’s
groups that initiate social and cultural activities or
even new ritual activities. To give one example: the
largest Arab mosque in Oslo (1,700 members in
2004) had four women’s groups in 2003. Three
were responsible for courses for women and girls:
one class for tajwìd (recitation of the Qur±àn), one
for tafsìr(explanation of the Qur±àn), and one art
class (painting, embroidery). The fourth group
organized lectures on topics of religious and cul-
tural interest, open to mixed audiences (men and
women as well as Muslims and non-Muslims). Such
activities, when well organized, also attract women
from mosques of different ideological and ethnic
affiliations, and may help build bridges between
different communities. These groups occasionally
initiate and encourage ritual participation in new
ways. Since 1990, in the same Arab mosque in
Oslo, women participate in the men’s ≠îd prayer
(although in a separate room), and this particular
ceremony also draws women from other mosques –
Turkish, Pakistani, or African.
Converts to Islam often play a central role in
women’s organized mosque-related activities. Prob-
ably a majority of European converts to Islam are
women, and some of them also bring organiza-
tional skills into the community and encourage
born Muslims to engage in new activities. These
local activities can easily be combined with mem-
bership in women’s associations outside a particu-
lar mosque, and active women often become
members of autonomous women’s associations.Women’s branches of
male-dominated associations
A number of mosques are affiliated to specific
Islamic movements or international organizations.
Some of them find a base for women’s activities
in private homes (such as members of Jamaat
Tabligh), in mosques with women’s quarters (such
as the Pakistani Idara Minhaj ul-Qur±àn or the
Turkish Milli Görüs), or have mosques reserved for
women (as is often the case among the Turkish
Süleymanlis, namely members of the Avrupa Islam
Kültür Merkezleri Birligi).
The Jamaat Tabligh, founded in British India in
the late 1920s, recruits mainly from South Asian
and Arab communities (particularly Moroccan),
and has established preaching networks and
mosques throughout the world. Although women
are expected to conform to strict rules of modesty