Muslim Lesbian Author Fatima Daas Sparks Debate on Faith and Sexuality

"I have no desire to reform this religion [Islam, editor’s note], which I consider that I am no one to say that it is not a sin, so today I consider that it is a sin," she said on Monday on France Inter during the presentation of her novel The Youngest. This work is a semi-fictional self-portrait in which Fatima Daas addresses her faith and her homosexuality.

The novelist’s point of view surprised journalist Léa Salamé. "It’s difficult to carry this speech because we’re used to making us choose, that is to say to say that in fact ’no it’s allowed, finally the religion allows it’, and me that’s not what I’m telling, I’m trying to look for the place of complexity, to continue to say that ’ok it’s a sin but in fact we’re not perfect’, and ’ok we sin but we love women and we also love God’," Fatima continued.

In her book, she expresses her "feeling of shame" about her homosexuality. "It’s linked to the shame of precariousness, the shame of being a lesbian, the shame of being different, of being French within her family, of being Algerian in Paris, the shame of a double culture [...]. When you’re gay, whether you’re Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, shame can arise because you feel different from others," writes the 25-year-old novelist.