The All India Muslim Personal Law Board told the Supreme Court of India on Thursday (23 April 2026) that while women in Islam are permitted to enter mosques, they are not allowed to do so through the front entrance and must follow certain prescribed practices. The submissions were made during the ongoing hearing of the Sabarimala reference case, as reported in OpIndia.
Appearing for the AIMPLB, Senior Advocate M. R. Shamshad responded to queries from Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, stating, “There is no quarrel among the religious denominations in Muslims that women can enter into mosques. And that too for prayer… But there is a certain discipline that has to be followed.”
He further explained, “As far as men’s position is concerned, it is obligatory for him to be part of the congregation. For that, you need a mosque. For women, it is preferable that she stays at home and she gets the same religious reward which the man gets in the mosque. But at the same time, if a woman wants to come, (according to the Hadith) ‘come to the mosque. Don’t stop her’.”
Seeking clarification, the Chief Justice asked, “For factual clarity, are women allowed to enter the mosque?” The nine-judge bench, headed by CJI Surya Kant, is examining constitutional questions arising from petitions seeking a review of the 2018 verdict on women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple.
During the hearing, Justice Amanullah asked the counsel to clarify that women’s entry into mosques has not historically been disputed in Islam. “You should elaborate for everybody’s consumption that right from the beginning, there is also no dispute (that women can enter) and that it started from the holy Prophet himself,” he said.
Justice Amanullah also asked for reasons why it is not mandatory for Muslim women to offer prayers in mosques. “Give the reason also. The reason was if everybody goes from the house, who will look after the children… If she has the time, the capacity, she can also go, but then the crux comes. These are all managed by tradition right from the Prophet’s time itself,” he added.
In response, Shamshad submitted that although there is no prohibition on women entering mosques, there is a consensus that it is not essential for them to be part of congregational prayers.
The court was also hearing petitions seeking permission for Muslim women to enter mosques and offer prayers. One such plea, filed by a Pune-based couple, Yasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade and her husband Zuber, sought directions to allow women entry into mosques and access to the main prayer area.
Opposing the plea, Shamshad said that Muslim women do not have a right to access the Musallah (main sanctuary). He argued that demands “to permit Islamic women to enter through the main door, have an Islamic right to visual and auditory access to Musallah (main sanctuary)” and “to pray in the Musallah without being separated by barrier” should be rejected.
He further contended that the petitioners were incorrectly equating mosque spaces with temple structures. “Sanctum sanctorum has no place in a mosque. If the religion believes that there is no sanctum sanctorum inside the mosque, then nobody can insist that ‘I have to stand at a particular place’ or ‘I have to be first to lead the namaz’,” he said.
The submissions were made on the eighth day of hearings in the Sabarimala reference, which began on April 16 before a nine-judge Constitution bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, R Mahadevan, and Joymalya Bagchi.
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