By RFIPosted on 10-25-2019Modified on 25-10-2019 at 13:21
Sokhna Aïda Diallo was violently criticized in the Senegalese media, and cropped by the head of the brotherhood mouride, after the announcement of his ambitions. She finally apologized, but this case highlights a debate on the place of women in the religious hierarchy.
She would have liked to be sheikh instead of the sheikh. Sokhna Aïda Diallo appears as a free and modern woman for her supporters, or rebellious and undisciplined for her detractors. One of the wives of the spiritual leader of the Thiantacounes, a group of the mouride brotherhood who died in May 2019, has since been at the heart of a battle of succession with the guide's eldest son.
She has been seen hosting thousands of cattle purchased on the occasion of the last Grand Magal of Touba , the great religious festival of the Mourides, and to receive many faithful. An unacceptable situation for the general khalif of the brotherhood, who has sharply called to order, including a statement broadcast on the internet.
" If it concerned only her and me, I would have sent her to the bush (...) ," he said. If we applied sharia, she would be put to death. But times have changed, "says the religious leader.
For her part, after several days of controversy, Sokhna Aïda Diallo apologized in a video. Low profile, therefore, to calm the game. But it is a " sign that our religion does not accept certain realities, " says a close Sokhna Aida Diallo, who says fear for his safety.
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