scholars who try to rewrite the koran in our times in our societies within islam we have a patriarchal structure within religious institutions and that patriarchal structure of course it has affected the interpretation of the koran so this is also what we would like to challenge these pay trickle structures patriarchal readings of the koran and and i think that female you moms has something to contribute in that context because we have a specific focus on gender equality and we are in need of that so you're not wearing a he job shoot i had or face cover be a choice and this is a sign of oppression what do you think of course if i mean we are born free we are born free so of course every single human should choose for themselves how they want to live their life and muslim women have different interpretation of what it means to be

a modest woman this is my interpretation of modesty to me the scarf is a metaphor for sincerity towards god and sincerity in the relationships that you find yourself in it could be a friendship or a marriage or whatever so but i also respect women who choose the way that he jav and see it as a part of the islamic identity we have to accept and respect that claim and have these different interpretation of what it means to be a modest woman in the koran there are two verses come searching the scarf and concerning the covering one of the verses is specifically. related to the wife of the prophet and the other verse is more universal like you said he jap to burka it's all based in their requirements to be modest for women in islam didn't she is he that as another of the patrie arky that you are resisting like a woman has to sing about how a man sees her and worry whether she is judged modest or not by

a man. and that's not my interpretation of modesty i use the term more in the sense of the. in the sense that you choose how you want to present yourself in the sense of a more spiritual sincerity so i have the same respect for a woman who was wearing a minister and a woman who's fully covered i mean it's up to any woman to choose how she wants to dress and how she feels comfortable and i mean it's stated clearly in the declaration of human rights that any human being has the right to practice his or her religion in the private sphere and in the public sphere so i mean we cannot we cannot decide that women should not wear the hijab i mean it's a human right it's freedom of religion and freedom of religion is is just as important as freedom of speech so as not of course what happens in iraq what

happens in iran where women are forced to wear the scarf of course i condemn that and i fight fight against that and i wouldn't i also condemn anyone we are i condemn whatever is going on in europe right now where were countries are trying to . fool he jobs on women in the streets. i mean if a woman if a woman chooses to wear the he or the board it's her own individual decision and we shouldn't i mean fights against that we have to support the i mean any person's right to practice his or her religion i mean we signed the contract was signed the declaration of human rights so it's actually stated that very keeley that this is a possibility so i will fight for any woman's right to wear the hijab and not to whether he. goes the station you're quite an interesting mix of absolute european democrat and

a spiritual leader in the slum. when you try to fight islamophobia and open up your religion open up islam from a different angle how do your fellow believers see you i mean do you think you are a true muslim in their eyes in the muslim of the clerics from egypt or iraq or maybe don't even care what they think. actually i do not seek the recognitions of of other people i seek the recognition of. but of course it means something to me what people think. actually we had a visitor it's it was the granny mom from the third largest mosques in the indonesia in jakarta it's called it's the mosque the granny mom he has two hundred thousand muslim this it says every friday for his friday prayer he came to the mahdi a mosque in copenhagen he prayed in a mosque and he blessed our mosque and he blessed the concept of female in mum's

and he even quoted a one of my favorite inspirational sources which is it been out of be here from eleven sixty five until twelve forty and he said the perfect man is a woman so we have muslim spiritual great leaders who support the mosque and of course we also met by a position because when you when you change a patriarchal structure you change the power balance and people will become upset it's natural so in your new reality in your everyday reality what is harder dealing with the national islam of right wingers or religious islamist fanatics i think both i mean there are very similar they're similar both sides both sides they tend to generalize they are manipulating guy caught some nice between them and us between being a muslim and being a secure a list we've seen muslims and jews and muslims and and christians and all of these manipulate the dichotomies you will find it on both sides and this is actually what

i try to fight against or what we try to fight against or challenge we try to deconstruct all of these manipulated by cuts and nice showing the world that islam is a religion and it's a peaceful religion and it's possible to be a practicing muslims who believe that the koran is the word of god and at the same time be here a member of secular society. it is possible all right sure and we're going to take a short break right now while we're back we'll continue talking about cher rain on con denmark's first female a mom discussing her fight against islam also be out in europe stay with us.

luke. that's geysers fine it will survive until they say money that the relatives love to be using it is so central banks the poor diet the elements of the club and why don't they stop to.

remember finally going to come home and also if they can get up and leave now hons they've got it on donkey the point about. lining if he would be would it be that he'd be to the party ten got out and meet me. here plus is that going to be much to people who. didn't. vote but i thought it might have been my little bit of a what if i'm about a little bit odd jobs at that out of money good job out of much of the woodwork to mop up together but if. this is one big flood fools. some boards of the. city. to see. if anybody will vote.

i am. and where mapquest sure wayne first female a mom talking about the future of islam in europe sure in iraq the council of islamic scholars is allowing women to officiate marriages in saudi arabia while men have been allowed to drive so there are steps forward in more traditional islamic countries but do you understand that from a western point of view i mean this isn't really impressive this is a very basic things that shouldn't have been banned in the first place. yes i agree with you totally. in the marry a mosque we have constructed

a new marriage islamic marriage contract that gives women muslim women the right to divorce actually due today in the world muslim women do not have the basic right to divorce it's the right of the husband so and actually it's an islamic principle the right to divorce so we have contracted a new marriage contract giving women the basic islamic right to divorce and if it means for bitten in our contract if mental of physical violence occur the marriage is a law of the woman has the right over the children in case of a divorce we also conduct into religious marriages in the mara mosque as the first one in scandinavia we believe that any person has the right to choose her partner for life and it should be a very basic thing but unfortunately today one of the biggest. not only in the muslim world but also in europe is into faith marriages and the the concept of

interfaith marriage is i'm going to comment you that looms leaders yes i'm going to come before was it about that i'm that arab spring activists woman from yemen and libya and they work on women's rights while looking to see a logical foundations ways to interpret in the koran finding the right how does it sadder can't one's rights ever work outside the religion in islamic communities where i mean is that for instance feminism in a west isn't tied to religion femen is don't go to st luke course and paul they don't turn to bible and ask them women have rights to so secular feminism even possible in muslim culture of course it's possible it's happening all the time i mean in in many muslim countries you have a population there a secure list and they're not even occupied with religion but i'm occupied with. we form within religion occupied about how we can re read the koran with

a focus on gender equality but the secular feminism is i mean it's present all over the world also in the muslim world so when you say down with polygamy down with oppression of women you can be a good muslim and not wear a veil but i'd imagine your religious opponents would say wait well this isn't really slum at all is islam really and all you can eat cafeteria where you get to pick and choose what you like and discard what you don't like and actually i believe that as a muslim leader as a muslim spiritual leader i mean we shouldn't judge other people it's not our i mean we should listen to people in the area must we have female humans within without the scarf and in that sense we are reflecting reality as it is and i'm very confident i'm happy about that now interface marriages you conduct them in your mosque people come from all over europe to get married to get married by you saying

that it's impossible to sign and elsewhere to do it but if other humans don't do it that means that your religion is against that so is this technically cheating. actually tunisia is the first muslim country in the world they changed the law in december two thousand and seventeen and now they made it possible for muslim women to marry non muslims and it i think that that could create a domino effect in the rest of the muslim world not now but maybe in the future because someone has to take the first step we are actually not the only mosque that conducts interfaith marriages it is happening different places in the world but it's happening maybe it's not official officially it's not stated that it's happening but i know that it's happening different places so. i don't mean to offend but i need to get down to the core of things right and like i ask you where

and whether there are double standards in everything that we're talking about here maybe someone who can tell you that clinging to their religion in such a ways really paying lip service for it what i mean is that if this one doesn't accept hypothetically interface marriages then if i want to marry a hindu and i'm a muslim well maybe islam is not for me if it calls me to me a sinner for it right and if i'm gay and the catholic church doesn't want me at prayer where we catholics and isn't for me what's the point if you simply don't sit i mean i do believe that interfaith marriage is legitimate also according to islam as a religion in the koran it stated clearly that a muslim man can marry a jew or christian but it's not stated clearly that a woman can marry a jew or muslim and it's not stated that she cannot but in the koran have stated clearly that both men and women should seek the vote it seekers of the one so

we find the legitimacy in the koran and we do believe that the right to choose your partner is a basic right it's a basic human right and if you believe that the koran i mean contains an essence on gender equality i mean what goes for the man goes for the woman so this is actually where we come from and what we believe in now i wonder if you have any ties with women clerics of other religions like rabbis or female christian priests is there any kind of gender solidarity that is crossing religious lines i mean we are in the area must we call borate with other i mean communities we have very inspired by the jewish progressive jews in denmark and i also recently met.