Reformer

going her own way

dounia bouzar is showing political and religious leaders how french muslims can balance the demands of their country with those of their faith

The daughter of an ALgerian father and French mother, Dounia Bouzar says she’s spent much of her life “trying to connect the two sides of myself: the Arab and French; the Muslim and secular.” In March 2003, she demonstrated those united identities in a very public role by becoming one of just two women on the board of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), the state-sanctioned body that represents Islam in France.

Bouzar, 41, an anthropologist who specializes in French-born-and-raised Muslims, hoped to shift the CFCM’s priorities from “detached theological deliberations” to the daily concerns of France’s estimated 5 million Muslims, such as racism and urban segregation, and the domination of women that traditionalists justify on religious grounds. In January, though, Bouzar resigned, complaining that the CFCM’s resistance to change and deference to foreign scholars left no place for her. “For years, political leaders and religious scholars have been defining who and what we are as French Muslims,” she says. “It’s up to us, as French citizens and practicing Muslims, to tell them who we are and what we need.”

Her emphatic departure led conservative detractors to claim Bouzar champions an Islam-lite dictated by non-Muslim French society. Yet Bouzar’s stance is more sophisticated than those critiques suggest. She chides Muslim leaders who argue the Koran mandates that pious women wear head scarves, but also decries France’s law banning the hijab from public schools and government administra-tions. “The freedom of a Muslim woman not to wear a head scarf becomes moot if the state bans the freedom to wear it,” insists Bouzar, who does not cover her head. She’s convinced that it’s possible to be a good French citizen and good Muslim at the same time. “Each Muslim interprets and honors the Koran from his or her own perspective and experience,” she notes. “Our worship must be compatible with our French environment, and vice versa. Once leaders accept that we are the model for French Islam, our input will help resolve real demands and conflicts.” Little wonder, then, that Bouzar has become a model for many seeking to unite France and its Muslims — By Bruce Crumley

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