France's first female imam: "The veil is not a religious obligation"

Kahina Bahloul has studied Islamology at the École pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and is the first woman in France to officially receive the title imam.

She herself does not wear a veil - and believes that there is no support in the Qur'an for women to be forced to do so.

- I think the veil is not a religious obligation. I have studied the texts carefully and I mean that the Korean text does not force the woman to hide her hair, she says in an interview in the French television channel BFM.

Kahina Bahloul belongs to a new progressive direction within Islam that challenges traditional interpretations. Her vision is to start a new mosque that welcomes homosexuals and where men and women pray together in shared premises.

Already on Saturday, such a prayer was held before more than 60 men and women, side by side, by the two self-proclaimed French imams Anne-Sophie Monsinay and Eva Janadin.

The feminist Muslim movement can also be found in Copenhagen, where imam Sherin Khankan opened the Mariam mosque in 2016 with only female imams. Also in Berlin, since 2017 there is a liberal mosque run by the imam Seyran Ateş, where the prayers are gender mixed and LGBTQ people are welcome.

Women who are imams are not in themselves a new phenomenon and most imams are open to everyone.

On the other hand, the fact that women lead a mosque, preach to mixed groups and make their own interpretations of Islam, according to Mohammad Fazlhashemi, professor of Islamic theology and philosophy at Uppsala University.

- Since the men had the right of interpretation, they have not given women the right to make their own interpretations. Now the women come and say that they have their own opinion and interpretation. It is challenging and causes the ground to swing under the feet of this authority, ”says Mohammad Fazlhashemi.

Many of the things that the new female imams want to change have already been raised from an academic and secular point of view. Important to point out is that it is now about believers, learned Muslims who make their own interpretations of their religion, says Mohammad Fazlhashemi and develops:

- They derive legitimacy from religion and its origins and have a firm foundation in Islamic theology. It's not easy to dismiss as if they just didn't understand.