Mosques are “male-dominated and patriarchal places, where a man is at the speaking platform, a man leads prayer, a man is in focus and dominant”, says Sherin Khankan, an academic and one of four female imams in Denmark. It is for this reason that she has set up Copenhagen’s first female-led mosque, a “feminist project” designed to facilitate worship “on women’s terms.”

Having come up with the idea more than a year ago, Khankan – who has a Muslim Syrian father and a Christian Finnish mother – is determined to broaden Islam’s appeal to her fellow countrywomen. “I have never felt at home in the existing mosques. The new grand mosques are unbelievably beautiful, but I have the feeling of being a stranger when I am there,” she told Danish newspaper Politiken.

“The majority of Danish imams do not want female colleagues,” Khankan said in another interview with Dagsbladet Information. “In my youth, I experienced women being distanced in the Muslim communities in Denmark. And I feel strongly that I am not alone.”