Bearded woman tries to preach in mosque

MANAMA, Bahrain -- A big, bearded cleric caught the eye of a mosque official as he approached the stand to deliver the sermon, the chief imam at Bahrain's largest mosque recalled Thursday.

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The official asked the cleric what he wanted to do. The cleric replied he was going to give the Friday sermon. But his voice was strangely soft and his beard slipped as he spoke, imam Sheik Adnan al-Qattan told The Associated Press.

The "cleric" was a woman in disguise, and when the official blocked her path, a scuffle broke out, al-Qattan said of last week's incident in the Al Fateh mosque.

"She was big and strong. There were four or five men trying to stop her," al-Qattan said of the woman, who wore a keffiyeh on her head and the black cloak rimmed with gold that is traditional for clerics in Bahrain.

"I quickly started delivering my sermon so as not to create a scene."

Police arrested the woman. Men and women sit in separate sections of a mosque and the sermon can be delivered only by a man.

The authorities have not issued a statement about the incident, but the government-guided Bahrain Tribune reported the woman had told the police that she wanted to give the sermon to highlight the case of her brother, who had got into trouble with the authorities for a brawl.

The paper said the woman's first name was Fatima and she was 40. It added the police released her on bail a few hours after she was arrested.

"What she did was totally wrong, and I think she is mentally ill," said al-Qattan. "If she had a problem, she should have spoken to me in person about it rather than creating such a scene in the mosque."

Friday prayers is the main service in the Islamic week. The Friday sermon at Al Fateh attracts more than 7,000 worshippers.

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