Woman Friendly Mosque, Features and Facilities: A Case Study on Masjid Sultan Ibrahim, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Abstract

Mosque has gone through a long and complex development throughout the Muslim's history which involved the interrelation between its functions and its design. During the process, many aspects of its design were reconfigured including the female facilities in the mosque. In Malaysia, there is a progressive movement to transform the roles and functions of the mosque from exclusive place for prayers and seclusion to a community center. Nevertheless, there are still a numbers of muslim women voices their frustration towards the facilities provided to them in the mosque. Indirectly, this has discourage participation of women in the mosque. The objective of this paper is to investigate the opinions and needs of muslim women in a mosque and to propose appropriate features and facilities for a female-friendly mosque. The study explored through a field observation and a set of questionnaires, which involves a case study of Masjid Sultan Ibrahim in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. The field observation was carried out to analyze its current conditions, facilities, design and features. On the other hand, a set of questionnaire was distributed to the women visitors who were mainly students and staffs as to get their insight on this issue. From the field observation and the survey distributed, it was clearly seen that the facilities provided for the female users were still not up to the standard of a 'women-friendly mosque'. Some proposals were provided to improve on the current condition and to be taken into consideration by future designers in designing a mosque.