Convert to Islam: British women - part 4

Around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year – and most of them are women. 
Six of them talk about prejudice, peace and praying in car parks.

Kristiane Backer, TV presenter, 47, London

 

 

Kristiane Backer:

'It has been a challenge transforming my TV work in line with my new-found values.''

 

 

 

I grew up in Germany in a Protestant but not terribly religious family,
then in 1989 moved to London to present on MTV Europe.

I interviewed everyone from Bob Geldof to David Bowie, worked hard and partied hard,
but something was missing.

At a moment of crisis, I was introduced to the cricketer Imran Khan.
He gave me books on Islam and invited me to travel with him through Pakistan.

Those trips opened a new dimension in my life, an awareness of spirituality.
The Muslims I met touched me profoundly through their
generosity, dignity and readiness to sacrifice for others.
The more I read, the more Islam attracted me. I converted in 1995.

When the German media found out, a negative press campaign followed and
within no time my contract was terminated.
It was the end of my entertainment career.

It has been a challenge transforming my TV work in line with my new-found values,
but I am working on a Muslim culture and lifestyle show.

I feel I have a bridging role to play between the Muslim heritage community
and society at large.

Most Muslims marry young, often with the help of their families,
but I converted at 30.
When I was still single 10 years later, I decided to look online.

There, I met and fell in love with a charming,
Muslim-born TV producer from Morocco who lived in the US.
We had a lot in common and married in 2006.
But his interpretation of Islam became a way of controlling me:
I was expected to give up my work,
couldn't talk to men and even had to cut men out of old photographs.

I should have stood up to him,
because a lot of what he asked of me was not Islamic but cultural,
but I wanted to make the marriage work.

Insha Allah my future husband will be more trusting and focused on the inner values of Islam,
rather than on outward restrictions.

I have no regrets. On the contrary:
my life now has meaning and the void that I used to feel
is filled with God, and that is priceless.