In November 2003, Nomani became the first woman in her mosque in West Virginia to insist on the right to pray in the male-only main hall. Later, she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the United States. On that day, March 18, 2005, she stated:
"We are standing up for our rights as women in Islam. We will no longer accept the back door or the shadows, at the end of the day, we'll be leaders in the Muslim world. We are ushering Islam into the 21st century, reclaiming the voice that the Prophet gave us 1400 years ago".
Her efforts to allow women to lead mixed-gender prayer (Muslim women have always been able to lead single-gender prayers) have been rebuffed by the mainstream Muslim community-- no mosques or traditional Muslim women's organizations have participated in her mixed-gender prayers; her first prayer event was held at New York's Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the second (at Brandeis University) consisted of six individuals including herself.
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