Praying in Cairo behind the green curtain

Last night, right before prayer time, we made our way to Islamic Cairo downtown, strewn with ancient and beautifully ornate mosques. It was another scorcher so I had on a long but sleeveless sundress. Shame shame. As we walked near the entrance of one of the mosques, a man named Mohammed (ironically) with a large presence and booming voice approached us and warned us against entry into the mosque as it was only for fully covered Muslim woman who wanted to pray to God. I let him know matter-of-factly that I prayed to God as well and am Christian, but would like to join in the the prayer time. He laughed and led us on our way to find a long scarf to cover ourselves so that we would be worthy of entry. We arrived at the entry of The Mosque Madrasa of Sultan Al-Muiayyaa built in 1415 AD and were instructed to take off our shoes and were asked if we were fully clean. I assured Mohammed I was freshly showered. He led us into the Mosque, past the men's quarters to our left, into a vast open gazebo with a "showertower" in the middle for those not so freshly showered folk, and then pointed me in the direction of a green curtain, the prayer area. I walked in, and there before me were roughly 200 Egyptian Muslim women lined up in about 20 rows side by side. I made my way to the 3rd row next to two small girls. The Imam (Muslim priest) was talking into a loudspeaker but was not visible. His chanting and reading of sections of the Quran was deep and monotone and in between phrases there were long pauses when we would sometimes kneel, sometimes, stand, sometimes bend down totally prostrate, and sometimes bend over...everyone in unison. I must say it was a good flexibility workout. We did the progression of kneeling, bending, standing, etc. in between the readings for about 20 minutes. At one point in the middle of the session, an elderly woman tapped me on the shoulder with a look of chastisement and motioned to the area just above my wrist where I was showing skin. I quickly covered up at her and smiled back at her. Her look softened and she motioned me towards her. She then took a pin out and readjusted my headdress around my head covering my chin and put a pin in it to hold it. The ladies around her giggled and smiled. I nodded my head and gave her a look of gratitude and turned back around to finish out. When we left from behind the green curtain to leave the mosque I waved goodbye to my prayer group, put on my shoes and went on my way.