Historic First: Female Imams Lead Mixed-Gender Muslim Prayer in Paris

This event is hailed by the "progressive" Muslim community in front of which two female imams, Anne-Sophie Monsinay and Eva Janadin, "stressed and happy" at the same time, led the first mixed prayer.

For this first experience, in addition to the discreet choice of the meeting place, the day was also changed, for fear of reprisals. The imams indicate that "exceptionally, this meeting took place on a Saturday and not on a Friday for logistical reasons". They also reassure that "all other appointments, which will be held once a month in other places, will take place on Friday evenings according to the traditional format of worship".

However, steps are being taken to find a permanent place that can serve as a permanent place of worship for these two female imams. This place of worship will be called the ’’Simorgh Mosque’’, after the name of a mythological bird found in the Iranian Sufi poet Attar, the two imams already announce.

These monthly ceremonies, they recall, will be responsible for measuring the attendance of the faithful seduced by this progressive Islam which "reconciles faith with reason and critical thinking", she adds. "We are contributing our stone to the construction of an Islam in France adapted to the achievements of modernity".

For the same media, this progressive Islam, which continues to seduce its many faithful, is based on four main principles: equality between women and men, freedom of wearing the veil, inclusiveness and Francophonie.

To succeed in their goal, these two women, Anne-Sophie, 29, a music teacher, and Eva, 30, a history teacher, converted about ten years ago, founded the Cultual Association, in 2018, Voix d’un Islam éclairé (VIE), with 200 members and thanks to which the faithful flocked in large numbers to this first meeting.

Through this initiative, several people have become more firmly rooted in the Muslim faith. For Mina from Lyon, now far from "automatisms", she believes she has found the right path with her Islam "which leaves room for her own reflection". Among the guests are also Seyran Ateş, imam of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin, currently under police protection, and many others.

The same source also announces the creation of another similar project in France, which this time will put women at the center of the place of worship. For its founder, the Franco-Algerian imam, Kahina Bahloul, 40, a Doctoral student in Islamic studies at the École pratique des Hautes études in Paris, the sermons will be alternately provided by a woman and a man.