(Video)Amira Khadija Kouyaté: From the dream of being a gynecologist to Ya Seyda March 6, 2026
She wanted to be among those who monitor a woman’s health throughout her life, but her destiny took her elsewhere. Because Khadija Kouyaté is now among the girls who breathe the light of the Koran into souls seeking the right path, especially to little ones, thanks to her teachings.
“Man proposes, God disposes”, this old saying sums up the life of Amira Khadija Kouyaté well. A native of Grand Dakar, a peripheral district of Dakar, from a young age she had mapped out the path she wanted to follow and the profession that tempted her.
“I loved medicine so much and my biggest dream was to become a doctor. I wanted to be a gynecologist to provide care to our sisters and mothers in need. Because it’s a sector where we only have men,” confides the young Oustaza, aged 26, with a smile.
If Khadija smiles when thinking of her ambitions, it is because her destiny is far from what she imagined. Due to a lack of civil status, she will see her dream collapse without even being able to obtain her baccalaureate. Because she did her entire school career in French. Even if she was taking Koran classes at the same time.
“I was just waiting to get my baccalaureate to get started”
“What pushed me the most to stop studying in Terminale was just problems with civil status papers. I couldn’t even take the exam. However, I had asked for all the information I needed, the training to follow to become a gynecologist. So, I was just waiting to get my baccalaureate to get started. But God decided otherwise,” says young Ya Seyda.
Having mastered the Koran very early on, Khadija was already giving lessons for children and mothers in her neighborhood. Already in her final year, she combined her classes and teaching in mosques for elderly women. And even before that, she organized holiday Quran classes.
“I went to schools to have classrooms lent to me. And at the end of the year, I organized a Quran recital ceremony to close our activities,” she says with pride.
Determination being the starting point of any achievement, the commitment of the young student will be the starting point for a new professional life. Mistaken by her papers, she will be contacted to give Koran lessons in the neighborhood.
“And it was gradually that my destiny changed because I had more and more learners. Mashallah, because it was beneficial for me. I was able to develop a certain bond with the children and a love for the profession. So, I devoted all my time to this,” she confides.
Moments of weariness
However, young Amira admits that she naturally had moments of weariness, knowing that she will not be able to pass her baccalaureate despite her crazy ambitions as a teenager.
“It’s true that at the beginning it wasn’t easy for me to give up my dream for reasons that were beyond my control. But it was my faith that guided me and shaped me. So, I relied on the Almighty, saying that perhaps this was my destiny and that it was the best for me,” she comforts herself.
Having an indelible faith in her religion and the Noble Quran, Ya Seyda Khadija does not feel sorry for herself. Because it recognizes that there is nothing more noble than transmitting the word of Allah (Swt). Moreover, she recalls, this is what the Prophet Mouhammed (Psl) recommended: “Even if you only know one verse of the Koran, transmit it to the believers”.
Although she has a great passion for religious teaching and an attachment to children, Amira Khadija reports having suffered a lot of mockery in her early days as a veiled person.
“Some told me I was going to scare them with my mainsail. Because we are in a country where people believe that the veil is a matter of Arab culture. So when they see a veiled woman, they think it’s out of the ordinary. However, they forget that it is a divine recommendation,” she explains.
In fact, it is in Sura 33, verse 59 (Al-Ahzab) of the Quran that Allah said: “O Prophet! Tell your wives, your daughters and the wives of believers to draw back their large veils (jilbâb): they will be recognized more quickly and exempt from punishment. »
But unfortunately, she laments, when we veil ourselves, according to her, we lose some of our friends who think that we are no longer from the same world. However, by persevering, we realize that we are on the right path.
“You have to be determined and committed when you veil yourself. So, girls who want to wear the veil just have to go for it. Because death doesn’t wait and it’s never too late to repent. And if we want to have a peaceful life, we must follow divine recommendations,” she says to the sisters who are still afraid of wearing the veil.
Mariama DIEME
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