An octogenarian social worker, who retired from active politics in the 1990s, has set a target of constructing the “country’s first women-only mosque” at Taj Nagar in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
Nuruzzaman Khan, 80, started the construction work of the women-only mosque nearly two years ago with contributions from three of his sons working in the Middle East and another son who is a faculty in Jamshedpur Cooperative College and also from his “well-wishers” in Jamshedpur.
“I had nearly 1.5 acres of land located around 7km away from Jamshedpur and we already have a co-ed school there till Class X that is affiliated to the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) and providing free education to poor children.
“The mosque with a capacity of 500 women at a time is being built on nearly 2,000sq ft of land adjacent to the school. Apart from the masjid, there will be washrooms, a canteen, a library and a computer laboratory for women in the area,” said Nuruzzaman, who had contested on the Forward Block ticket in Jamshedpur West Assembly constituency in 1985 in undivided Bihar.
“Construction of the masjid along with all other facilities will cost over Rs 1 crore and my sons and well-wishers have assured me that money would not be a problem. We hope to complete the basic civil work of the masjid by December and open it for women by the year-end,” said Nuruzzaman, who also had a stint with Lok Dal under the socialist leader and former Bihar chief minister Karpuri Thakur.
When asked about the opposition from Muslim clerics to his idea, Nuruzzaman retorted: “I have always stood for values and ethics and this was the reason for my disassociation from politics in 1995 when I saw criminalisation of politics while being the Bihar state general secretary of Janata Dal.
Almost all Bihar leaders including Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar knew me personally and had come to my home in Mango. I am not afraid of criticism. I want to ask those who oppose my idea to help me find out in the Quran or Hadis if it is
written anywhere that women are not allowed to offer namaz.”
“If Muslim women can perform Haj with men, they can also go to a mosque and pray,” he added in the same vein. Right from the imam to the security guards and cleaning staff, everyone would be women. Even in the school that we are running, all the staff are women except two men faculty,” said Nuruzzaman.
