Moti Masjid, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh India

The Moti Masjid was an important landmark of Bhopal, and was built in 1860 by Sikandar Jehan Begum, Qudisiya Begum’s daughter. Sikandar Begum was fairly unconventional compared to Muslim women of her time – she usually dressed like a man and went out riding without a veil, often with a dagger tucked under her belt. Bhopal came to be known as the domain of the relatively liberated, even progressive women, and it was Sikandar Begum who set the trend. The Begum was an enthusiastic reformer, open to modern ideas. She abolished slavery and built roads, bridges and beautiful monuments like the Moti Masjid. The mosque has a marble-white façade with two small cupolas atop it, and it has two huge black minarets on either side of it.