LOS ANGELES — The first women-only mosque in the United States opened its doors in Los Angeles on Friday with an inaugural jummah, or prayer, by Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The mosque is housed in a century-old multifaith worship space near downtown. Originally built as a synagogue, Pico-Union is now the home of the nonprofit Women’s Mosque as well as several Jewish and Christian groups.

Even as the boards of directors at many American mosques are becoming more welcoming to women, the relegation of Muslim women to basements, balconies and other less desirable spaces in their houses of worship remains a common practice. That second-class status is the main force behind the founding of the Women’s Mosque.

While a mosque solely for women is a novelty among the roughly 2,000 mosques in the United States, mosques for each sex have long flourished in other parts of the world. The young American Muslims behind the Women’s Mosque are working to counter cultural practices that marginalize women, by linking their effort with established Muslim traditions and helping the disaffected reconnect with their faith. There is no requirement that worshipers wear headscarves, welcoming women “in the type and style of clothing in which they feel comfortable.”

The desire to nurture that faith is what motivates Sana Muttalib, an attorney specializing in international anticorruption law and a co-president of the Women’s Mosque, along with M. Hasna Maznavi, a comedy writer and director. Muttalib’s understanding of Islam was shaped by a belief in women’s equality from a very young age, she said. “The stories my mother taught me from the Quran were all about equality. When I grew up and realized that isn’t always the reality that plays out in society, I was shocked. It really caused me to have a crisis of faith.”

She said she began to rekindle her faith in law school, where she took a constitutional law class and an Islamic law class in the same term. “I reconnected with the Quran and realized what was there and wasn’t there in terms of empowering women,” she said. “Before I die, I wanted to help the real Islam be lived in society. I had been looking for a way to do that.”