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"In a country with about 21 million Muslims, women also have their
own mosques to worship in – another practice different from other
countries," said Shui Jingjun, of the Henan Academy of Social
Sciences who co-authored a book on the subject. Women
administered these mosques and women serve as the imams there.
In many other countries women attend the same mosques as men but
pray behind partitions or in separate rooms. Many women’s mosques
in central China began in the late 17th century as Qur'anic schools for
girls. Then about 100 years ago, they evolved into women’s mosques.
“I haven’t had any students since 1996,” she said. “Women don’t want
to be imams anymore, because the salaries in the mosques are too
low. No one is willing to do it.”