"I See Myself as a Muslim Frenchwoman"

Six months ago, Hanife Karakus, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, became the first woman to be elected president of a Muslim regional council. Since then, she has led the regional council in the region of Limousin in southern France. Siegfried Forster paid her a visit

Hanife Karakus with her daughter (photo: www.sabah.com.tr)
Hanife Karakus unites many different things in her personality: tradition and modernity, emancipation and heritage, mosque and Internet, homeland and foreign parts, Muslim and Frenchwoman

​​"President of the Regional Council of Muslims in the Limousin Region" - a statesmanlike title for a young, almost girlish-looking 24-year-old. Hanife Karakus welcomes her visitor at Limoges railway station. She is accompanied by her husband and escort, Mustafa Gursal, who is also treasurer of the Regional Council of Muslims.

She is wearing a black headscarf with a flowered pattern, which she wears especially so that I will recognize her when we meet for the first time. She smiles shyly and speaks slowly, for example when talking about the fact that while she is known in the national media, she is relatively unknown in her native region of Limousin.

Pragmatic and not revolutionary

It sounds like a revolution: Hanife Karakus is the first woman to be elected president of a regional council of Muslims in France. But the reality of the matter is quite different. Hanife Karakus does not consider herself to be either a revolutionary or the spearhead of an "epochal movement".

How could she? As a young mother, her little daughter Saliha keeps her on her toes. Not only that, she is also studying law and makes time for the interview with me between two lectures. The interview is conducted not in her (as yet non-existent) office, but in the breakfast room of the Hôtel de la Paix, which she has never entered before in her life.

The reason being that despite its significant name, "Conseil Regional du Culte Muselman" (CRCM), the council of Muslims, which is officially based in Limoges, is still nothing more than a declaration of intent and a political promise.

"The French Council of Muslims was founded as a result of the political will of the state. Nevertheless, those of us in the regional council of Muslims in Limousin still have no office space," laments Karakus. "We have applied to the prefecture, the town hall, for a room. To date, however, nothing has come of it. So you could say that we are homeless!"

Regional councils as an aid to integration

The National Council of Muslims in France was established in 2003. Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, hopes that this newly established institution will bring more recognition for the second largest religious community in the country and further the integration of Islam into the French Republic. There are a total of 25 Muslim regional councils in France.

Last June, Karakus agreed to run as the joint candidate for the Muslim organisations that are at odds with one another in the other regions. She was asked to stand because she is studying law. However, she admits that she brings one shortcoming to the post: a lack of political experience. "Before this, I had never worked in an association. I did not even know what to expect from the job. I am relatively disappointed about the reality of the Regional Council because I initially thought we would have more means at our disposal to allow us to be more active in some areas."

Limited opportunities

The Regional Council of Muslims over which she presides depends on the membership fees from the 13 Muslim associations in the region. This membership fee is a modest € 900 per annum. Half of this sum goes to the National Council of Muslims in France. But even without money, offices, and the power to take decisions, Hanife Karakus believes in the job and is working hard as president to improve the lives of approximately 12,000 Muslims in her region.

She is fighting to reserve certain areas of French graveyards for Muslim burials, sends prayer rugs and Muslim pastors into prisons, and issued a statement condemning the violence in the recent riots in the suburbs even though her rural part of Limousin was spared the worst of this violence.

Hanife Karakus grew up in Mulhouse in Alsace. She is one of five daughters of a Turkish immigrant who earns a living by working in the car industry. She speaks fluent Turkish and French. To her parents’ surprise, she decided to wear the headscarf as a law student because she sees herself as a Muslim Frenchwoman. She is a woman that unites many different things in her personality: tradition and modernity, emancipation and heritage, mother and politician, mosque and Internet, homeland and foreign parts, Muslim and Frenchwoman.

Siegfried Forster

© DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE/Qantara.de 2006

Translated from the German by Aingeal Flanagan

Qantara.de

Azouz Begag
From the Banlieue to a Place in the Cabinet
Azouz Begag was born in an immigrant shantytown on the outskirts of Lyon. He later became a novelist and social scientist. To his own surprise he was now appointed France's new Minister for the Promotion of Equal Opportunity. Bernard Schmid reports

Muslims in France
Fighting Symptoms Instead of Finding Real Solutions
It's with a mixture of indifference and helplessness that the non-Muslim majority approaches the problems of the marginalised young Muslims in the suburbs or the public presence of orthodox Islam in society, writes Jürgen Ritte

Is Allah a Frenchman?
France and the Challenge Posed by Islam
Even though only about one-tenth of the French population is Muslim, only a small number practice their religion in what are mostly improvised places of worship. France seeks to defend its policy of laicism by introducing a ban on the wearing of headscarves. The foreign funding of mosques and imams continues to be a cause for concern. Christian Müller reports

Portrait Tariq Ramadan
Role-Model for Muslim Youths throughout Europe
Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan is the idol of the Parisian suburbs. He is fighting for a modern Islam and against what he calls "Jewish intellectuals". Now the US administration has revoked his visa. By Jörg Lau