This special story in Le Monde is a first-person account of Christelle-Soraya, 36, who converted to Islam at 18 and is “overjoyed” with her burqa.
Christelle-Soraya lives with her husband and children in an HLM in Every (Essonne). She began wearing full-covering in public 11 years ago.
She describes rejection from her family, and how her husband of Algerian-origin was also skeptical when she took up the practice. She is careful to claim she is not Salafi, but a “Muslim”, and claims that it was her understanding of the Qur’an that led her to cover more fully.
She is a hairdresser who works from her apartment.