This doesn’t seem particularly religiously justified:

Religious leaders in Saudi Arabia want to impose restrictions on women praying in the Grand Mosque in Makka, one of the few places where male and female worshippers intermingle….

At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the mosque, believed to have been built by Ibrahim (Abraham) - seen by Muslims as a prophet - and his son.

Muslims walk around this seven times according to rites first established by Ibrahim and re-established by Prophet Muhammad.

Plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would place women in a distant section of the mosque while men would still be able to pray in the key space…

Hatoun al-Fassi, a historian, said the move to restrict women’s prayer in the mosque would be a first in Islamic history.

“Perhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques that’s their ultimate aim,” she said.

From Aljazeera.Net.