COPENHAGEN: Scandinavia’s first female-led mosque has opened in Copenhagen, in a bid to challenge “patriarchal structures” and hoping to create debate and dialogue, its founder said Friday.

Sherin Khankan, born in Denmark to a Syrian father and a Finnish mother, said that while all activities at the Mariam mosque except Friday prayers would be open to both men and women, all imams would be female.

“We have normalised patriarchal structures in our religious institutions. Not just in Islam, but also within Judaism and Christianity and other religions. And we would like to challenge that,” she told AFP.

Reactions from the city’s Muslim community had mostly been positive, with negative feedback being “moderate,” she said.

Denmark’s largest purpose-built mosque, including the country’s first minaret, opened in 2014 in a gritty district in northwestern Copenhagen after receiving a 150 million kroner (20.1 million euros, $22.6 million) endowment from Qatar.