The new suffragettes

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 20:00

THE energetic efforts of 19-year-old Nazia Iqbal and her friends to gain the right to vote for candidates for the management committee of Glasgow Central Mosque, previously a male-only preserve, will strike a sympathetic chord with many of her fellow Scots.

These young women seeking equal opportunities to contribute to the running of their place of worship are neither radicals nor heterodox in their religious outlook. On the contrary, they are mainstream, orthodox Muslim believers. There is no religious controversy attached to their demands, as there is no prohibition in the Koran against women participating in this way.

Women already take part in the management of several mosques in England and America. Not even their opponents have claimed their actions challenge any religious precept. Any objection to their doing so is, therefore, purely cultural, not theological. In that context, the Scottish women campaigners are simply bringing the values of their country of birth – in particular, equality of opportunity regardless of gender – to a purely secular issue.

In many ways, the positions they are seeking have less religious significance than membership of a Church of Scotland presbytery, but in Glasgow's Muslim community they carry an obvious symbolic cultural weight. These impressive women have this newspaper's support in their efforts to place their energies at the service of their place of worship. They are a credit to themselves and their community.