More Masajid need to be accessible to the disabled Photo WikiCommons
South Africa – A recent University of Cape Town (UCT) study of people with disbaukits in the Muslim community has found that more people need to take responsibility and make a concerted effort towards inclusion.
Dr Nafisa Mayat, who recently graduated with PhD in Disability Studies from UCT, conducted her doctoral research on disability inclusion and Islam. One of the key findings or themes in her study found that people see disabled people as “inferior”.
“They are looked at as the ‘other’ in the community. One of the other elements is that the burden of responsibility is on the person with the disability. The responsibility is on the person with the disability to make themselves feel included. That doesn’t create full inclusion. The other theme that was highlighted was that, while speaking to the Ulama, who acknowledged that while we are doing some work to include people with disabilities, we are not doing enough. Much more has to be done.”
The exclusion taking place in the workspace
Mayat’s study looked at how people with disabilities are being excluded from the workplace and the Masajid. While it didn’t take into account how accessible every workplace and Masajid are, the end result was that both places are lacking in catering to people with disabilities and “not much has been done over the years”.
“A Muslim organisation that employs someone with a disability where she could not pray her Zuhur salah (midday prayer). She is blind so a simple thing like a jug is never in the same place. She has to look around and she isn’t able to wash herself or make wudhu (ablution). Although she is someone who is local and expressed to the staff, it has never changed.”
SMread: Al Aqsa: Another raid, Gaza tensions and crackdown
The issue in Masajid
Another case focuses on Shaheed Moussa (name changed for ethical reasons) who used to attend Friday prayers regularly at his local Mosque until he became bound to a wheelchair. After facing incidents that made him feel invisible, he eventually stopped going to the Mosque. Although he asked for a proper ramp to be put up, it wasn’t put in place until “one of the trustees broke his hip”.
Zain Bulbulia, Chief Director in the office of the Premier, touched on the issue of the Masajid and echoed Mayat’s points. Bulbulia is also a wheelchair user just like Moussa and he has encountered a number of difficulties when it comes to accessing Masjids.
“I’ve encountered a number of difficulties in Masjids throughout South Africa. There are few that are fully accessible and those are the ones I frequent. One simple thing is when you go to any Musjid, there is either no parking space for people with disabilities or if there is, people just dash into it. You come along with your wheelchair.”
Even though one may be able to overcome the challenges of getting into the Musjid, the challenges are not over, explained Bulbulia. There are other challenges inside that may prove even more difficult to get over.
“Many years ago when I became disabled, I went to one Musjid and the mutawalli (trustee of a Musjid) came to me and said to me ‘Zain your wheels are getting the carpets. Can you not get off your wheelchair?’. That alone shows the ignorance of understanding what are the needs of people with disabilities … You look at the wudhu khana, a wheelchair user cannot reach the taps to make wudhu.”
Even exiting the Masjid after the Friday prayers is an issue as everyone forces their way through the front door, said Bulbulia. You have to ensure you come out unharmed and still in your wheelchair.
SMread: Creating an inclusive society for people with disabilities
Universal design
Masajid built these days cost a huge amount and none of them are of a universal design, explained Bulbulia. It will not cost huge amounts to actually incorporate a ramp into the design of the Musjid or make it more accessible in other ways.
“if you look at the amount of money that has been spent in building Masjids from the chandeliers to the carpets and where one just needs a more accessible bathroom or a ramp put down. it is not even a third of the price that is in there. When architects are designing a Musjid, that’s one of the things that they run short of. That’s why I say universally designed and accessible is what we need to look at.”
Understanding the disabilities and addressing it
Now that the study is out, the real hard work begins, explained Mayat. Doing the research means nothing if no implementations are made and nothing is done to help those who are disabled. It is up to the public as well as those with disabilities to raise the issue and ensure everyone is able to access the Masjids.
“So what needs to be happening now is to reshape the way we think of disability. Often we thought about the issue with sympathy … I feel people with disabilities don’t want that sympathy. We need to reshape the way we think about disability, creating knowledge. The idea is to have disability in the curriculum in the Darul Ulooms when they teach. We have to make it work on the ground. We have to visualise these unconscious exclusions that have come out from the study and look at how we address these barriers.”
To hear more from Dr Nafisa Mayat and Zain Bulbulia about the struggles disabled people go through and how it can be rectified, listen to the podcast here:
