RIYADH, Nov 15: Women visiting Masjid-i-Nabawi in Madinah Munawwara have been temporarily banned from entering, approaching or praying at the Prophet’s chamber and the Rawdah (the area between the Prophet’s chamber and his pulpit is referred to as a Rawdah ul Jannah), the press here reported.

The General Presidency of Prophet’s Mosque Affairs, entrusted with the task of maintaining the mosque, was reportedly forced to take the unprecedented move due to a very large number of women visitors to the Masjid during this part of the year, when Muslims from all over the world converge on Makkah Mukarrama and Madinah Munawwara to perform Umrah and pray at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah Munawwara.

From now on, until the ban is lifted, all the female visitors would only be allowed to pass by the place called Agha’s Bench (Aghas were the servants-khadims in the mosque) and then go out through Bab-i-Jibril and encircling once again to enter by the women’s gate and return to the place from where they had entered the mosque.

The huge crowds were making it impossible for the old and weak women to move freely to the Rawdah and back causing delays in the removal of the partitions between the Azan of Zuhr and Asr. The ban is likely to be lifted after the months of Ramadan and Hajj.

The Presidency has also posted some officials to fix the thick canvas partitions to demarcate the women’s place for prayer and limit visit in the two sessions after the sunrise to one hour before the Zuhr prayers and after the Zuhr prayers till one hour before the Asr prayers, newspapers here reported.

Visitors are specially keen to pray at the Rawdah because the Prophet (Peace be upon him) has stated, “the place between my minber (pulpit) and my chamber is a Rawdah (garden) among the gardens of paradise and my minber is on a stream among the streams of paradise.”

Some Saudi opinion makers have also taken strong exception to the narrow time frame allowed for the women to visit the Rawdah.

“Why are women crushed into a narrow space while men are allowed to take all the rest? Islam does not differentiate between men and women in matter of pious deeds and obedience to God. Instead of the limited hours allocated to women around the Prophet’s tomb, I request that the whole sacred area including Rawdah and Mihrab — the prayer niche, the Prophet’s pulpit and the main viewing area be left open for women. I wonder why women today are not entitled to view the tomb freely from the main viewing area as they did 20 years ago. Has some new regulation been added to Islam since then,” asked Nourah Abdul Aziz Al-Khereiji in her regular column in the Saudi daily Arab News on Friday.