Naima Ghoani, a 30 years old nurse from a Moroccan origin, who resides in Italy, expressed her wishes to chair the Friday prayer in one of the mosques, located at the suburbs of the Italian capital, Rome.
By doing so, Ghoani is trying to follow the precedent of American woman, Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic businesses at the University of the Commonwealth in Virginia, who was allowed to chair the Friday prayer in the Episcopal church of Manhattan.
It should be noted that Amina Wadud has already performed the sermon in front of a mixed audience of about 150 people, where some of the women were without the traditional Islamic veil.
However, Naima Ghoani could not follow her American counterpart's example and her request to chair the prayer was unanimously denied by the some 1,500 Muslim worshipers attending this mosque. And <i>EMarrakech</i> reports that these worshipers also went on to demand that the person in charge, who agreed to receive Naima Ghoani's request, will be dismissed.
