"Muslim Women Who Become Homeless Have Limited Options" By Jackie Spinner (Washington Post)

For Muslim women without a place to live, particularly those who have been battered or are immigrants, being homeless can test their faith at the time they need it most.

Sigh.

Highlights:

The Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee estimates that several hundred Muslim women are homeless in the Washington region, based on U.S. Census Bureau data and local surveys. That is a small fraction of the homeless population and of the estimated 250,000 Muslims in the region, but local Islamic leaders say the problem has grown in recent years. Kahn said homelessness in the Muslim community was almost unheard of several years ago.

Social workers, clerics and lawyers who work with Muslim homeless women said most were driven from home by abusive husbands or are unable to work because of their immigration status, leaving them without money for housing. Some face both troubles.

"I lost everything," said Fatem, who has two children from a previous marriage in Mali whom she has not seen in almost eight years. "I don't have anything no more. I feel really shamed for my family living in just a shelter."

But Fatem said she feared for her life if she stayed with her husband, a social worker.

"He made me hungry," she said. "He was sleeping with his ex-wife and made her pregnant. Every little money I make I had to give to him. He beat me. He pushed me to fall down. My daughter cried. She think I'm going to die."

:( SubhanAllah...

Imam Hassan Amin of Masjid Us Salaam in downtown Baltimore said more Muslim women are seeking shelter. "I've been dealing with women who would come to us and don't have any place to stay. . . . It's a big issue."

If the women end up at Christian-oriented shelters, they are asked to "come out of their Muslim dress," Amin said. "There are almost always prayer circles, and they play gospel music. Muslim women . . . are pushed to be a part of that group."

the Washington region has about 12,000 homeless people on any given night. There are more than 740,000 nationwide, according to 2005 data

Stoops said most shelters are privately run. The largest shelter organization is Catholic Charities, he said, followed by the Salvation Army and the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. Traditionally, Stoops said, many Christian-oriented shelters -- he called Catholic Charities an exception -- have offered clients "soup, soap, sleep and salvation."

Phil Rydman, spokesman for the Kansas-based Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, said policies on attending worship services vary within the association's network. "It is generally not required," he said.

Steve Morris, commander of the Washington area Salvation Army, said the Christian charity imposes no worship requirement on people it shelters. "Each of our housing programs in D.C. offer opportunities for worship, but it is clearly at the discretion of the client," Morris said. "We have a chapel on site and hold regular services there, but clients are free to choose to attend."

In 2003 and 2004, McIntosh was homeless herself in Texas after she lost her job. She said she was assured when she sought shelter from the Salvation Army that she would not have to attend church services, which she would have considered a sin against her Islamic faith.

But the first night she was there, McIntosh recalled, the woman who had given the assurance ordered her to go to Christian worship or pack her bags. "I left," McIntosh said.