Seyran Ateş

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Seyran Ateş, 2008

Seyran Ateş (phon. [ Sɛjˈrɑːn aˈtɛʃ ], born April 20, 1963 in Istanbul , Turkey ) is a German lawyer , author and women's rights activist of Turkish and Kurdish descent. As a lawyer in Berlin, she mainly deals with criminal law and family law and has also been involved in German policy on foreigners . Seyran Ateş was a member of the German Islam Conference and took part in the German government's integration summit .

Because of violent attacks and threats by opponents of litigation as well as hostility from the political side, she temporarily withdrew her license to practice law in 2006 and withdrew completely from the public in 2009 after new death threats. She has appeared again in public since 2011 and reopened her law firm in 2012.

Ateş is the initiator and co-founder of the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin, which stands for a liberal Islam that, according to its own statements, separates secular and religious power and strives for a contemporary and gender-equitable interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith . After the mosque community was founded, Ateş received a large number of death threats and is therefore guarded by the police day and night.

Life

youth

Seyran Ateş, whose mother is Turkish and whose father is a Kurd , described in her autobiographical book Great Journey into Fire - The Story of a German Turkish Woman in 2003 the cramped conditions from which she personally freed herself. The title of her book alludes to her name, Seyran means 'excursion, pleasure trip' and Ateş means 'fire, fever'. At the age of six she moved to live with her parents in Berlin-Wedding . They had moved there years before without their little daughter knowing where they had gone. In the very small Berlin apartment she had to fulfill the traditional female role . She had to serve her brother and parents and was not allowed to leave the house alone. She was beaten and verbally abused for disobedience. In preschool she was the only Turkish woman to remain socially isolated due to a lack of sufficient knowledge of the German language. But she learned German very quickly and was one of the best students in 1st grade. With a recommendation for grammar school, she finally went to a comprehensive school of her own accord and, with a view to studying law, did her Abitur at the upper level center for business, administration and law. At the comprehensive school she was elected head girl . She could no longer endure the alienation between repressive upbringing and school recognition. At 17 she secretly left her parents' home and lived in a shared apartment and with a lawyer friend of hers until she graduated from high school.

attack

To finance her law studies at the Free University of Berlin , she worked in the Kreuzberg meeting and information point for women from Turkey TIO for Turkish and Kurdish migrants who wanted to protect themselves from domestic violence in their families. In 1984 a man shot her client Fatma E. and seriously injured Seyran Ateş. Ateş claims to have had a near-death experience . The suspect was identified by her and six other witnesses. Later his membership in the nationalist Turkish group Gray Wolves could be proven, for which he is said to have worked as a contract killer . After the suspect was acquitted and still lives undisturbed in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Ateş accused the authorities of investigative errors and sloppiness. A representative of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution avoided a statement in court on the grounds that there was no registered association with the name of Gray Wolves. The recovery and healing from the consequences of the assassination took six years. In 1997 she passed her second state examination at the Berlin Court of Appeal , successfully completing her legal clerkship .

Integration and socio-political commitment

In the integration debate, Seyran Ateş opposes the failed concept of multiculturalism and instead advocates the idea of transculturality . With lectures and publications she fights against the gender segregation legitimized by a false understanding of Islam and the oppression of women, which in her view is symbolized in forced concealment as well as against forced marriage , child marriages and honor killings . She advocates more outreach social work in families of Turkish and Kurdish origin and was the first to demand a separate criminal offense against forced marriage, which better protects women and men from forced marriage. She was one of the supporters of the vigil for honor killing victim Hatun Sürücü .

Because of her commitment to integration and equality, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon in Germany in 2007 . On October 1st, 2008 she received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin from the Governing Mayor of Berlin , Klaus Wowereit . Ateş is a member of the board of trustees of the Humanist Association Berlin-Brandenburg . In 2014 she received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.

Temporary abandonment of her legal practice

After a divorce appointment, Seyran Ateş and her client were insulted and threatened by the divorced husband at the Kreuzberg subway station Möckernbrücke on June 7, 2006 , and the client was beaten without any of the passers-by intervening. Further threats from other procedural opponents and political opponents followed. In August 2006, Seyran Ateş returned her license to practice as a lawyer. She justified this step with frequent threats and physical attacks by opponents of her client's proceedings. She accused Turkish associations such as the Turkish Community in Berlin and the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet of complicity in the “violent mood”.

Only indirectly did she also indicate a lack of personal protection by the police, which she had not expressly requested, as she only later made clear. At the same time, Ateş announced that it wanted to remain politically active with lectures, panel discussions and interviews. Personal protection is guaranteed here. It was welcomed by politicians from all parliamentary groups in the Berlin House of Representatives , also in view of the upcoming elections to the Berlin House of Representatives on September 17, 2006 . Ateş also received support from Berlin lawyers and the German Association of Women Lawyers. In her first interview after her resignation to the bar, she justified this step by saying that she did not want to end up like Ayaan Hirsi Ali . This fought against an overwhelming power in their country and was ultimately forced to emigrate. Despite the offers of help from politics (application of the witness protection program , as suggested by Justice Senator Karin Schubert ( SPD )) and the judiciary (working in law firms), she initially stuck to her decision.

After a conversation with representatives of the Berlin Lawyers' Association (BAV) and the German Association of Women Lawyers (djb), Ateş announced on September 11, 2006 that she might resume her legal practice in 2007. Her professional colleagues offered her to practice her legal profession in a joint office of a law firm, better protected from attacks. She only wanted to accept this offer after a long period of recovery. Despite negative voices from the Berlin Senate on the "Ateş case", several politicians again called on it to take protective measures.

On September 6, 2007, Ateş resumed her work as a lawyer after one year. In the future, however, she wants to look after her clients without an official address. Although she does not know how long she will be able to work in Germany, she is protected from the public debate.

Withdrawal from the public after death threats

On October 19, 2009 Deutschlandradio Kultur reported , citing Ullstein Verlag , that Ateş would withdraw completely from the public. The reason for this step are death threats that she received after the publication of her latest work Islam needs a sexual revolution . According to the publisher, Ateş and her family were in immediate danger at the time.

In February 2012, Ateş applied to be released from Turkish citizenship . This step was not easy for her personally and politically, also because it would have to rethink her views on dual nationality.

Return to the public

In the summer of 2012, she reopened her law firm, primarily to be available as a lawyer for women seeking help.

In 2016, Ateş and others prepared the establishment of a mosque in which, contrary to the usual practice in Islam, women and men pray together. At the same time she is training to become an imamin . On June 16, 2017, she opened the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin . After about 100 death threats, Ateş received personal protection around the clock. Your Berlin mosque represents a secular Islam. Against the countless tirades of hate against her on Facebook and Twitter, she also files criminal charges in serious cases. Together with the Berlin State Criminal Police Office, she currently posted over 200 reports, she reported in September 2017 at the ÖIF panel discussion on Integration and Islam in Vienna.

Together with the former Austrian Federal Councilor Efgani Dönmez and the lawyer Sebastian Reimer, she initiated the European Citizen's Initiative Stop Extremism (ECI) in July 2017 , a package of measures against political and religious extremism in Europe. The aim is to achieve an EU directive that closes loopholes in the fight against extremism and establishes effective protection against extremism across Europe. Numerous prominent experts and journalists, including the author and psychologist Ahmad Mansour and the Islamic scholar Mouhanad Khorchide , support the initiative.

Obtaining a personal loan

In December 2019 it became known that Ateş had received a personal loan of 45,000 euros from the operator of the " Artemis ", the largest brothel in Berlin. Ateş pointed out that “she did not use any improper benefits”; Ateş did not deny the existence of the personal loan.

Positions

In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit on the Islamophobic film Innocence of Muslims , Ateş, as a Muslim and lawyer, was of the opinion in September 2012 that the state should not give in to the protest actions by Muslims supported by Islamic fundamentalists : “But where religion only serves to demarcate they oppose democracy. And where religion calls for punishment, the war begins against the Enlightenment and against those freedoms from which all churches and religious communities benefit in this country. Their truth must also remain open to criticism. Basically only the fundamentalist can be insulted. "

In March 2012, she gave an interview to the legal magazine Legal Tribune Online in which she revised her opinion , which had previously been a flatly affirmative view of dual citizenship . She presented the need to decide on a nationality brought to young people by the German legal system as a positive challenge. It was an opportunity to find out about the constitution and the political realities of the respective countries, about the human rights situation, the degree of democracy, plurality and civil society that is granted. She expressly considers it questionable when a society creates citizens who reject society and only have an interest in the privileges, but are not interested in the rest, neither in the language nor the culture. In particular, she advocates placing constitutional patriotism “at the heart of the integration debate ”.

Since May 2018 Seyran Ateş has been ambassador for the association "intaktiv eV", which campaigns against genital mutilation and circumcision of children.

Awards

Publications

Works

  • 1983: Michael Kuhlmann, Alwin Meyer (eds.): Where do we belong? In: Lamuv Taschenbuch Volume 25, Bornheim-Merten, ISBN 3-921521-73-4 (published with a friend under the pseudonyms "Ayşe" and "Devrim", 8th edition 1994).
  • 2003: Big trip into the fire. The story of a German Turkish woman. Rowohlt , Berlin, ISBN 3-87134-452-4 , review:
  • 2004: Religious freedom not at the expense of women and girls - enforcement of the basic rights to equality and self-determination. Opening statement to the forum "Law and Religion" at the "Feminist Lawyers' Day" FJT on May 8, 2004 in Frankfurt am Main. In: Association women arguing for your right (ed.): Streit - feminist legal journal , Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 99-103. ISSN  0175-4467
  • 2005: individuality. Be me or have me? In: Michael Alberts (Ed.): Flensburger Hefte , Volume 87, with a contribution by Seyran Ateş. Flensburger Hefte Verlag, Flensburg, ISBN 978-3-935679-22-0 .
  • 2007: The multicultural mistake . How we can live better together in Germany. Ullstein , Berlin, ISBN 978-3-550-08694-6 , review :.
  • 2007: Co-author of the script for the Tatort episode “ Family Constellation ”.
  • 2008: Upon separation: Death , in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (Ed.): Death and dying in the contemporary society. An interdisciplinary discussion (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisciplinary / Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Volume 3), Baden-Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-8329-3171-1 .
  • 2009: Islam needs a sexual revolution . A polemic. Ullstein, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-550-08758-5 .
  • 2013: adopted home - why I want to love Germany. Ullstein, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-550-08020-3 , excerpts from Google Books .
  • 2017: Selam, Ms. Imamin . Ullstein, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-550-08155-2 .

Press

Memberships

Web links

Commons : Seyran Ateş  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. seyran (pronunciation in Kurdish). FORVO: All the words in the world.
  2. ateş (pronunciation in Turkish). FORVO: All the words in the world.
  3. Karen Krüger: Criticism of Islam: Choose this country! In: FAZ . March 24, 2013 ( faz.net [accessed May 8, 2016]).
  4. "Death threats against author Seyran Ateş of Turkish origin" ( Memento from December 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Deutschlandradio Kultur , October 19, 2009
    Cathrin Kahlweit: "Lust for more". In: Jetzt.de , October 14, 2009.
  5. ^ Berlin - Liberal mosque opened . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed June 19, 2017]).
  6. Seyran Ates in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  7. Duygu Özkan: Seyran Ateş: “A human right not to believe.” In: Die Presse , June 11, 2011, interview.
  8. ^ Waltraud Schwab: Turkey: Seyran Ateş great trip. In: EMMA , January / February 2005, review of Große Reise ins Feuer .
  9. a b Alexandra Rigos: "The Tyranny of Love" , Greenpeace Magazine, 2003, No. 6.
  10. Gray Wolves | A chronology of silent power. Retrieved August 3, 2016 .
  11. Christian Esch: The Berlin lawyer Seyran Ateş about the headscarf dispute and the free will of women. That is desperation. In: Berliner Zeitung , April 6, 2004.
  12. Anna Reimann: “The multicultural mistake”: Plea for a Muslim Luther. In: Spiegel online , October 30, 2007.
  13. Sylke Heun: “Turkish women live more freely in Turkey than in Berlin.” In: Die Welt , March 17, 2004.
  14. “We have to arouse awareness of injustice.” In: Deutschlandradio , February 6, 2009, Seyran Ateş in conversation with Joachim Scholl.
  15. maf: vigil for Hatin Sürücü. In: Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband , Landesverband Berlin , February 19, 2005.
  16. Dpa : Cross of Merit: Federal President honors Seyran Ateş. In: Die Welt , June 16, 2007.
  17. Wowereit awarded Berlin state medals to deserving women and men (Part I). ( Memento from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: berlin.de , October 1, 2008.
  18. ^ Board of Trustees of the HVD Berlin-Brandenburg
  19. Seyran Ateş on the website of the Goethe Institute.
  20. Anna Reimann: Turks and divorces: 'I'll show you'. In: Spiegel Online , June 9, 2006.
  21. “Seyran Ateş criticizes Turkish associations”. In: Junge Welt , September 7, 2006.
  22. Andrea Dernbach, Suzan Gülfirat: After the withdrawal of Seyran Ateş. The reactions: “Important for the integration of Muslim women.” In: Tagesspiegel , September 5, 2006.
  23. “That mustn't stay true.” From: Deutscher Juristinnenbund eV (djb), September 5, 2006.
  24. Anna Reimann: “I didn't want to end up like Hirsi Ali.” In: Spiegel Online , September 6, 2006.
  25. ^ Regina Koehler and Hans H. Nibbrig: Justice: Politicians and lawyers want to help Seyran Ateş. In: Die Welt , September 5, 2006.
  26. Ulrike Plewnia: Seyran Ateş: Fear of "constant threat". In: Focus , September 8, 2006.
  27. dpa : Women's rights activist Ateş is working as a lawyer again. In: Tagesspiegel , September 6, 2007.
  28. Seyran Ateş: Goodbye, my dear homeland. Why I hand in my Turkish passport and only keep the German one. In: Die Zeit , No. 5, February 19, 2012.
  29. ^ Lawyer and Imamin criticizes the image of women in Islam , Neue Westfälische Zeitung, 23 November 2016.
  30. Police protection for the founder of the liberal mosque reinforced , Die Zeit, March 5, 2018.
  31. Panel discussion Integration and Islam , YouTube, accessed August 8, 2018.
  32. Stop Extremism - DE . In: Stop Extremism - DE . ( stopextremism.eu [accessed August 24, 2017]).
  33. People . In: Stop Extremism - DE . ( online [accessed August 24, 2017]). People ( Memento from August 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  34. T. Köberlein and A. Dinger: Seyran Ateş is said to have received a personal loan from the brothel boss , morgenpost.de, December 20, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019.
  35. Seyran Ates denies conflict of interest , tagesspiegel.de, December 20, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019.
  36. ^ Women's rights activist Seyran Ates received a personal loan from the brothel boss. Welt Online , December 20, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019 .
  37. Ates on brothel credit - "I am ashamed of the land"
  38. Evelyn Finger: "Only fundamentalists are offended" , Zeit online, September 20, 2012.
  39. Seyran Ateş on dual citizenship: "Two passports are not necessarily a privilege." In: Legal Tribune Online from March 18, 2013, interview.
  40. intaktiv ambassadors .
  41. Senate of Berlin: "Seyran Ateş receives Berlin Women's Prize" ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), February 13, 2004 ( PDF file; 67 kB)
  42. ^ German Citizens' Association eV: "Honoring our Woman of the Year 2005" ( Memento from July 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) November 5, 2005.
  43. 1000 PeaceWomen Worldwide. Seyran Ates (sic!), Accessed on: April 13, 2018, (German digital version of 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe , series: Contrast Book, Verlag Scalo, Zurich 2005).
  44. Seyran Ateş honored in Berlin. In: dpa / taz , October 23, 2006.
  45. Heinrich Wefing : “Islamism. The Ateş case ”. In: FAZ , January 10, 2007.
  46. ^ Lower Saxony lioness 2007. In: AsF Lower Saxony , March 1, 2007.
  47. Saara Wendisch: Respektpreis 2012. Ateş represents Cardinal Woelki. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 5, 2012.
  48. Markus Gerhold: Seyran Ateş does not shy away from taboos . In: Rhein-Zeitung . March 13, 2014.
  49. University of Oslo honors human rights lawyer Ates. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  50. Elke Nicolini: Review of "Große Reise ins Feuer" : "You speak German well!" , Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 19, 2003.
  51. Anna Reimann: Plea for a Muslim Luther. In: Spiegel online , October 30, 2007, review of Der Multikulti-Errtum .
  52. 721. Tatort episode «Family constellation» , accessed on April 12, 2014.
  53. Humanistic Association Germany, Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg: Das Kuratorium , published on September 30, 2016, updated March 16, 2017, last accessed on August 6, 2018.