A visit to Mosque in Wakra

Shell Outpost offered a tour of a Mosque and to learn more about how Muslims worship and pray. It was a very interesting visit to a Mosque in Al Wakra. We were allowed to enter after the prayer time was over. They explained to us how things work once a person enters the Mosque. The men are on the bottom floor and the women are on the second floor. Men are required to worship and pray 5 times a day. Most of them do not, however it is according to the Koran that they do. Women are not required to ever go to a Mosque. They are also not required to pray 5 times a day. Young boys would typically attend a prayer service with their fathers. Girls would go to the Mosque only if their mothers take them. Therefore, there is no such thing as the family praying together in the Mosque. They may do this at home. Many Muslim will have a dedicated prayer room in their homes, which is where the family would pray together. However, praying together is a foreign concept to them.

We returned to the Fanar (Doha Cultural Center) and attended a prayer service in the Mosque. Before the men enter the Mosque they wash their hands and feet (no shoes are allowed in the Mosque). When they enter the Mosque, they step up to the next person in the row, filling in from the front of the room. The rows are marked on the carpet. This must be the only place that they have to follow rules! After the prayer time is over, we (Jim and I separately) had dinner with them. It was a very nice dinner and the ladies were all very nice. Some of them I had met before at an American club function. The women were allowed to take off their face coverings as long as no men entered the room. The media was doing some interviews, so there was men coming in and out of the room where the women had dinner. The woman that I was speaking with ask that I warn her when a man enters the room, however they are very aware (somehow?) of what is going on behind them.

As we were leaving, the man that Jim was speaking with would not shake my hand. No surprise really. I am a lowly woman and he is better than me, or at least he thinks so.