By OMAR SACIRBEY

(RNS) The walls that segregate Muslim men from women inside many American mosques took a long time to go up, and it could be a long time before they come down.

Just ask Fatima Thompson, 44, who on Saturday (Feb. 20) led a group of 10 women and two men in a "stand-in" at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., hoping to persuade leaders at the stately mosque on Embassy Row to remove a seven-foot partition that separated men (in front) from women (behind).

''Every woman should be able to stand with the congregation. That's the correct way," said Thompson, who converted to Islam 18 years ago.