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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What is the ruling on women praying the tarawih prayer in a mosque where they crowd the men?

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Question:
We have a small mosque where we pray the tarawih prayer, and we bring our women with us. They pray in the ablution hall, and we cannot enter the restrooms for fear of crowding the women. So the imam required that a person perform istinja' (cleaning oneself after relieving oneself) at home, and he placed a water dispenser outside for the men to perform wudu'. What is the ruling on women praying in this mosque, considering that the men were crowded out, and some of them left the tarawih prayer in this mosque?

Answer:
This action is incorrect. It is making the women pray in the restrooms. One does not pray in restrooms. Restrooms are among the places where prayer is prohibited, even if people are prevented from relieving themselves during the time of Ramadan. This is sufficient to convert the restrooms into an annex to the mosque, and move the restrooms to another location. As for leaving the restrooms there and praying in them, that is not right.
The most that is prohibited is temporarily refraining from relieving oneself there. This is an incorrect action. It is not obligatory for women to pray in the mosque. It is not obligatory for women to pray in the mosque. It is better for them to pray in their homes. A woman’s prayer in her home is better. Let them pray in their homes. Because restrooms are among the needs of people, among the annexes of the mosque, so the restrooms remain for people to perform wudu' in; they are necessary. And the woman prays in her home until a suitable place is made available for them. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم صلاة التراويح للنساء في مسجد يزاحمن فيه الرجال؟ — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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