Me & the Mosque, Zarqa Nawaz

Me & the Mosque. The name of the Documentary I’m reviewing is me & the mosque, produced by Canadian filmmaker, Zarqa Nawaz. The movie was produced in 2007. I am reviewing this movie for the purpose of my Humanities class; Women in Islam. The documentary resolves around the issue of gender segregation in North America’s mosques, which is made possible by the use of barriers that forces women to pray behind walls, curtains, demarcation, etc., separate from men and in most cases either denied entry or separate entrances to the mosque.
After carefully watching this documentary, I believe the point the director was trying to make in this documentary was about the unfairness that exist within the Muslim communities itself, the social injustice and lack of spiritual equality in the Muslim communities. The director was showing how there is a lack of equality for the minorities (Women) in the Muslim communities, Muslim women are been segregated by the Muslim men in the mosque, they are also isolated in the community, they don’t have a voice nor say in the society or community they belong to. The documentary showed the recent transformation within the Muslim communities in North America, it described how the early Muslim community use to be in the past, how it used to be a very open, free and welcoming community, compared to present times where mosques and the Muslim communities have change to become more extreme and conservative. The documentary began by showing how what use to be a very open and free community has gradually changed to become very conservative. All of a sudden Muslim women are now becoming segregated in their own environments, from what began as a small simple demarcation to what is now seen in most mosques across North America – huge walls and curtains etc., separating men and women completely, suddenly women are not wanted in their place of worship, in some cases even denied entry into their place of worship.