Seyran Ateş
Seyran Ateş (born 20 April 1963) is a German lawyer and Muslim feminist born in Istanbul, Turkey of Kurdish descent. Her family moved to Germany when she was six years old. She studied law at the Free University of Berlin and has practiced law since 1997, specializing in criminal law and family law.[1] Ateş, a renowned civil-rights activist, is best known for demanding equal rights for Muslim women and girls.[2][3]
Her views, highly critical of an immigrant Muslim society that is often more conservative than its counterpart in Turkey, have put her at risk.[4] Her German language book Islam needs a sexual revolution was scheduled for publication in Germany in 2009.[2] In an interview in January 2008 on National Public Radio, Ateş stated that she was in hiding and would not be working on Muslim women's behalf publicly (including in court) due to the threats against her. In one particular incident, she and her client were attacked by a woman's husband in a German courthouse in front of onlookers who did nothing.[5]
Ms Ates opened the Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque in 2017. It's the first liberal mosque in Germany where men and women pray together and women can take the role of imam leading a prayer.[6] The Turkish religious authority and the Egyptian Fatwa Council at the Al-Azhar University have condemned her project and she has received death threats.[7][8] The fatwa encompassed all present and future liberal mosques.[8]
Selected works
- Bei Trennung: Tod, in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): Tod und Sterben in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Eine interdisziplinäre Auseinandersetzung (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 3), Baden-Baden 2008
- Große Reise ins Feuer: Die Geschichte einer deutschen Türkin, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2006
- Individualität: Ich sein oder Ich haben?, in: Flensburger Hefte, Nr. 87, Flensburg 2005
References
- ↑ "Tolerance for the tolerant," Signandsight.com, August 9, 2005. Article originally appeared in German in Perlentaucher, September 2, 2005. Retrieved January 29, 2010
- 1 2 "Islam needs a sexual revolution," interview in Der Spiegel, October 13, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2010
- ↑ "Seyran Ates: Tolerance for the tolerant (08/09/2005) - signandsight". www.signandsight.com. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
- ↑ Schneider, Peter (December 4, 2005). "In Germany, Muslims grow apart". New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
- ↑ National Public Radio interview, January 22, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2010
- ↑ Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg. "Frauenrechtlerin gründet Moschee: "Unsere Religion nicht den Rückständigen überlassen" - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Politik". SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
- ↑ Germany, WeltN24. "Liberal Moschee in Berlin: "Die meisten liberalen Muslime haben Angst" - WeltN24 - Deutschland". WeltN24. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
- 1 2 Oltermann, Philip (2017-06-25). "Liberal Berlin mosque to stay open despite fatwa from Egypt". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-16.
External links
- Seyran Ateş at perlentaucher.de – das Kulturmagazin (in German)
- Der Spiegel article
- Obsessed with Virginity – Female sexuality among western Muslims, a Deutsche Welle documentary which contains several interviews with Ateş concerning her life and work. (English with subtitles, 2017)
- Short biography from the Berlin International Literature Festival