Shanghai Female Mosque

Shanghai Female Mosque is one of the more distinctive mosque sites in the city because it was created specifically for women’s religious life. Established in 1933 beside Xiaotaoyuan Mosque in Huangpu District, it belonged to a wider Chinese Muslim tradition in which women had dedicated spaces for worship and religious learning. The mosque closed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai from 1937 to 1945, later returning to community use and continuing as part of the religious landscape around Xiaotaoyuan Street.

The current mosque is a three-storey building with prayer, Qur’an study, ablution, meeting, and reception spaces. Its location beside Xiaotaoyuan Mosque places it within one of Shanghai’s historically important Hui Muslim neighbourhoods, where the mosque once formed the centre of a wider community network of homes, religious education, food businesses, and social ties. Urban redevelopment has changed much of that surrounding environment, but the women’s mosque remains significant as a rare institution shaped by female religious participation. Its value is not only architectural; it records a social history of women’s learning, prayer, ageing, and community continuity within central Shanghai.