Pune/New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a petition seeking permission for Muslim women to enter mosques to offer prayers without being separated by a barrier. At present, Muslim men and women do not pray together in mosques.
A bench, headed by Justice SA Bobde, issued a notice to the Centre and asked it to respond to the plea filed by a Pune-based couple Yasmeen and Zuber Peerzade. The bench told the counsel appearing for the petitioner that it will hear the matter because of the apex court’s judgment in the case involving Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. “The only reason we may hear you is because of our judgment in the Sabarimala temple case,” the bench said.
Peerzade (48), a real estate dealer from Bopodi, welcomed the apex court’s decision to admit his petition and said, “We had written to the Mohmdiya Jama Masjid, Bopodi, on October 19, 2018, regarding permission for women to offer their prayers (namaz) in the mosque. However, the request was turned down. In response to the letter, the Imam (priest) of Jama Masjid, Bopodi, had written that since no permission can be granted and he is not sure about entry of women in mosque, as such he had written to higher authorities for consideration of petitioner’s request and requisite directions. I requested the police authorities for granting protection to permit my wife to enter the mosque and offer her prayer but the police did not provide protection.”
Oberoi was working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in US, where in 2004 the idea of this project took place. “I along with some 100 other scientists from across the globe were working on this model and from 2013, we started collecting the data, understanding it, developing software started. Before that in 2012, I moved to NCRA but continued to work on it,” he said.
When asked what would be the next step, he said, “This will help us understand the impact of solar activities on Earth. As light has two polarisations, we need to detect the polarisation where the magnetic field is After detecting it, we can know about the magnetic field and its strength,” he explained.
