The feminist and the imam, by Marie-Françoise Colombani & Tareq Oubrou

A feminist and an imam! In their interview, even their confrontation, they addressed all the subjects that have been agitating and dividing French society for months: veil, burqa, diversity, secularism, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, marriage for all, anti-Semitism, training of imams, reform the reading of religious texts… Marie-Françoise Colombani worked for the magazine Elle, which was notably at the origin of a petition pushing for the vote of the law against religious symbols in schools. Tareq Oubrou, for his part, encouraged Muslim women to cover their heads for years.
And yet, today, the Grand Imam of Bordeaux calls them to a discreet visibility explaining to them that the veil does not rest on any indisputable religious foundation.
Questioned without concession on this reversal, the place of the woman in his religion, his membership in the UOIF, his loyalty to Hassan el-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood), the suspicions of double game which weigh on him, he answers with this frankness which is his strength and has earned him numerous death sentences from extremist Islamists including Daesh.
It remains to be seen whether the imam will have convinced the feminist.

About the authors: Marie-Françoise Colombani - Tareq Oubrou

Marie-Francoise Colombani

Marie-Françoise Colombani is a journalist. She is the author of several screenplays and books including Now with Ségolène Royal (Flammarion, 2007), Pour l'amour de Massoud with Sediqua Massoud and Chekeba Hachemi (Editions de la Loupe, 2006), Welcome to Calais, the reasons for anger with Damien Roudeau (Actes Sud, 2016).

Tareq Oubrou

Tareq Oubrou is Grand Imam of the Bordeaux Mosque. He has notably published Profession imam: interviews with Michaël Privot and Cédric Baylocq (Albin Michel, 2009), An angry imam: integration, secularism, violence (Bayard, 2012).