AL ARABIYA NEWS: Amid a nationwide debate in France surrounding attitudes towards the Islamic veil, or hijab, a French rapper has surprised fans by announcing her conversion to Islam and choosing to wear a headscarf.
Mélanie Georgiades, known as Diam’s, has gone through what onlookers have described as a “complete transformation” from an image she had prior to 2009.
Since 2009, Diam’s had been unusually absent from the mainstream rap scene, prompting more than three years of controversy over her whereabouts, despite making the odd public appearance with her scarf. But recently the French rapper made her first television appearance with her new image.
Diam’s appeared in an exclusive TV interview with French TV station TF1, to talk about a past experience with drugs, including hallucinating narcotics, and being in a mental asylum until she discovered the “serenity of Islam.” The rapper said the religion was introduced to her by coincidence, when she saw a Muslim friend praying.
Diam’s, said she has been married for over a year and is a now a new mother, moving far away from her drug-relate past.
In her TV interview she said her “conversion to Islam was the result of a personal conviction, after understanding the religion and reading the Holy Quran.”
When asked about wearing the hijab in France, a country which has banned the niqab, she said: “I believe that I live in a tolerant society, and I don’t feel hurt by criticism, but by insults and stereotyping and ready-made judgments.”
Asked by her host about why she is wearing a hijab while many Muslim women don’t wear it, and don’t find it to be a religious obligation, she answered: “I see it as a divine order or a divine advice, this brings joy to my heart and for me this is enough.” (+ video) » | Ramdane Belamri | Al Arabiya | Monday, October 02, 2012
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