I’m Tired of Taking My Wife to Gender-Segregated Mosques

On a recent episode of Man Up, Aymann Ismail grappled with a tradition in his faith: the segregation of men and women in Muslim prayer rooms and mosques. For years he and his wife, Mira, have entered these spaces through different entrances—and, as a result, had very different experiences. Ismail spoke to Khalid Latif, executive director and imam for the Islamic Center at New York University, about the origins of the practice. In Latif’s prayer room, men and women sit side by side, not one in front of the other. This transcript of their conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.