Mauritania's female Islamic guides: Leading the fight against extremism'

Armed groups are expanding across the Sahel and West Africa, while military governments and counterterrorism efforts face violence linked to poverty and difficult living conditions. Mauritania has maintained relative resilience, often attributed to female Islamic spiritual guides who speak with young people and prisoners about God. These mourchidates are trained, certified, and deployed by the state under the Ministry of Islamic Affairs since 2021. The approach draws on Morocco’s programme, introduced after the 2003 Casablanca bombings as part of religious reform. Morocco’s mourchidates receive theological and social training, provide religious guidance and family counseling, and address social and emotional vulnerabilities that can lead to radicalisation.

"Mauritania's mourchidates are female Islamic spiritual guides, trained, certified, and deployed by the state under the Ministry of Islamic Affairs since 2021. They are not a new phenomenon, as the programme has its roots in Morocco. Morocco's mourchidates were introduced after the 2003 Casablanca bombings, a series of coordinated attacks in the Moroccan city that killed dozens and injured hundreds, as part of a broader religious reform."

"Since the programme's launch in 2006, Morocco's mourchidates have received formal theological and social training, which enables them to provide religious guidance and family counselling. Beyond their role in countering extremist narratives, they address the social and emotional factors that can make young people vulnerable to radicalisation, Biare told Al Jazeera."

"The explanation for this resilience often begins with a woman in a headscarf sitting across from a young man or a woman in a prison cell, talking about God. Mauritania's mourchidates are female Islamic spiritual guides, trained, certified, and deployed by the state under the Ministry of Islamic Affairs since 2021."

Read at www.aljazeera.com