I was widowed at a fairly young age, and as a Muslim woman and single mother it was my responsibility to take my children — a son and a daughter — to the mosque on Fridays, to find solace and to pray.
However, each time I was forced to be separated from my son. He would go to the larger men’s prayer hall, while my daughter and I went to the separate women’s section. He was a child, and I had no way of knowing how or where he was until the prayer was over.
In the throngs of men exiting the prayer hall I would search for him. The stress and anxiety of being separated from him ultimately led me to stop going with them to the mosque for a period of time.
