Allah’s Daughters

There is hardly any other public debate which is carried out as forcefully as that about the freedom and/or oppression of Muslim women.

For example: do young women of the ›third generation‹ see wearing a headscarf as a personal choice that has nothing to do with religious or patriarchal force? And do women who have only succeeded in freeing themselves from such force after a long struggle think of covering their heads as a clear symbol of the subtle exercise of power over the thought structures of their fellow women?

But disputes are not confined to dress codes: greater questions to be addressed are the right to interpret sacred texts and their viability as practical codices of action and behaviour applicable to contemporary family, social and political problems. Questions are also to be asked about the self-image of an enlightened secular society which wants to and must constantly re-engage with concepts like honour, respect, faith and values.

Author and sociologist Necla Kelek invites women with a range of beliefs and convictions to a frank discussion in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum.

Produced by the Ruhrtriennale.