Female French Imam Challenges Traditional Islam, Faces Funding Hurdles

"We do not have a fixed premises. We rent a room for Friday prayers. Because our big problem is funding. We are outside the traditional circuits. We do not benefit from the support of Algeria, Morocco or Turkey, which contribute to the financing of most mosques in France," she said in an interview with the newspaper Le Télégramme.

Kahina Bahloul is one of the three female imams who lead prayers with believers in France. She advocates an Enlightenment Islam and is one of the leaders of the Fatima mosque located in Paris. "In our mosque, men and women can pray in the same room. This is not the case in traditional places, which no longer suited us, where women are separated from men. They pray in basements, mezzanines. The believers who come to Fatima, which I co-direct with the philosopher and imam Faker Korchane, are of very diverse origins," she confided, stressing that in Islam, there is no authority that installs an imam. "The legitimacy comes from the religious community. We have been appointed by a group of believers to lead the prayer," she affirms.

Speaking about the reception of her Islam within the Muslim community, Kahina Bahloul indicated that there was no homogeneous Muslim community. "There are citizens, very different individuals," explained the Islamologist. "Obviously, we have been strongly criticized by fundamentalists, conservatives, but also by young people who are probably in a search for identity and who believe they must protect Islam from a deviation."

Nevertheless, she is pleased with the many memberships recorded: "Apart from that, we have many memberships. Especially since the publication of my book. I receive many messages from people thanking me for giving this image of an Islam of tolerance, peace and openness." "Nothing in the fundamental texts prohibits a woman from leading the prayer," the imam hammered home.