Mabrouka Rayachi
Country: Vienna Austria
Languages: English, German, Arabic, French
Organizations: Islamische Religiöse Autorität Österreichs
Expertise: Education
Focus area: Academic
Religious affiliation: Islam
Mabrouka Rayachi completed a Master of English and German from the Bourguiba school in Tunis in 1991 and earned a pedagogy diploma from the Islamic Religious Pedagogical Academy in Vienna in 2004. She was a religious teacher in Viennese schools from 1993 to 2012. During this time she organized many interreligious programmes with other religion teachers (mainly Catholic and Protestant). In April 2012 she became an Inspector for the Islamic religion teachers in Lower Austrian schools and initiated an interreligious seminar with her Catholic and Protestant colleagues on subjects such as the celebration of religious traditions in Islam and Christianity. She encourages her fellow teachers to actively encourage interreligious dialogue in school by regularly providing them with ideas and teaching materials. She is especially interested in broadening the interreligious activities, especially among young people. During the course of her work on interreligious dialogue, she has not only learned about other faiths, but has also learned much more about and deepened her own faith. As an active member within her Islamic community, she was chosen as the official Austrian representative to the first International Women’s Congress for a Culture of Peace in Algeria in 2014. Her Motto: The way to sustainable peace is interreligious dialogue.