Special Gatherings for Women

Then some women would play the ney and sing hymns while Mevlana and the others turned in the Sema. (If we look at the cultural pressures of 700 years ago, this was certainly a precedent for women.

With no discrimination between male or female, rich or poor, Mevlana is the King of Hearts. He won the love and friendship of women as well as men, and held special gatherings with women to give them the chance to share in the sublimity of his message. He tried to enlighten them with the Light of God by directing them towards the Truth.
Ahmet Eflaki Dede, in his Legends of the Saints tells this: Friday evenings the women of Konya would gather with the wife of one of the sultan's ministers, Emuniddin Mikail; she would invite Mevlana to join them. They would wait patiently for him. After his evening prayers Rumi would discretely come alone and sit with them. The women would circle around him scattering rose petals over him. Until the early hours of the morning Mevlana offered his holy words of God and love, and spiritual advice. Then some women would play the ney and sing hymns while Mevlana and the others turned in the Sema. (If we look at the cultural pressures of 700 years ago, this was certainly a precedent for women.
Mevlana's own father had been a member of a more conservative brotherhood; therefore when Mevlana took over his theological teaching duties, he was using the buildings given to his father by the ruler, and out of respect for his father, didn't include women so openly among the men there.) (to be continued)
Discussions on Rumi...Hasan Dede's Own Words By Ayşe Özalp and Carole J. Douglas