Necla Kelek
Necla Kelek (pronounced [ˈnedʒɫa ˈkelek]; born December 31, 1957) is a Turkish-born German feminist and social scientist, holding a doctorate in this field, originally from Turkey.
She gave lectures on migration sociology at the Evangelische Fachhochschule für Sozialpädagogik (Protestant Institute for Social Education) in Hamburg from 1999 until 2004.
Similar to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Dutch politician of Somali origin, or the Egyptian feminist, Sérénade Chafik, Kelek opposes the repression of women in Islam.
In her 2005 book, Die fremde Braut, she mixed autobiography, life stories of Turkish women, and literary forms with results of scientific investigations.
[2] Kelek showed this with the example of "Gelin", who was brought as a bride from Turkey for an arranged marriage and had no chance or prerequisites at all for integration into German society.
The emotionality of the book was felt by the reviewers to be a strength, but there was also clear criticism of sweeping negative statements about the entire segment of the population consisting of Turkish Muslims.
[4] This test caused quite a stir at the beginning of 2006, as it would require Muslims who wanted to be naturalized in the state of Baden-Württemberg to answer questions to check their loyalty to the constitution and their fundamental attitudes.
The book is based on Kelek's research project on the subject of "parallel society" at the Evangelischen Fachhochschule für Sozialpädagogik in Hamburg.
She is a permanent member in the Islamic Conference appointed by the German federal government, and a free-lance author for the women's magazine, "Emma", and many daily newspapers, among others.
Shortly before the appearance of Kelek's family sociology study in mid-March 2006, the weekly paper Die Zeit published, on February 2, 2006, an open letter, described as a petition and signed by 60 scientists from the social sciences field in general and migration research in particular, on the integration policy of Germany.
[7] It is directed against the prominent position of Kelek in the official political discourse, and points out deviations from the scientific method in her popular publications.
She intensified her reply, by accusing the "critics from the well-equipped world of the publicly financed migration research" of being "responsible for the failure of the integration policy for 30 years".
In the daily, conservative newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung[9][10] and Die Welt,[11] articles appeared which clearly took sides for Kelek's positions.
[17] Necla Kelek and Seyran Ates received support from Hartmut Krauss, Osnabruck editor and initiator of the Study Group of Critical Marxists, whose "opposing call", with the title, "Gerechtigkeit für demokratische Islamkritikerinnen" ("Justice for democratic Islam critics") was signed by 53 people (among which were journalists, scientists, engineers, authors, and human rights activists, the latter chiefly from Iraq and Iran).
In that, it says that honor killings, forced marriages, and a basic patriarchal orientation, just as anti-Jewish conspiracy ideologies and lack of respect for a secular democratic societal order, are "to be taken seriously, and are not marginal phenomena within the Islamic cultural community".
The position of the "migration scientists" is above all criticized because the negative manifestations with migrants are always sweepingly derived from the "racism of the receiving society", while the anti-emancipation potential of Islam is disregarded.
[18] Alice Schwarzer defended Necla Kelek against the criticism in an article in the FAZ of February 11, 2006, which was re-printed in the feminist monthly Emma;[19] she had bravely broken the silence about a societal taboo.
Schwarzer associated this statement with strong personal criticism of the authors of the open letter: Yasemin Karakasoglu is "very, very closely allied with the Islamic scene in Germany"; Mark Terkessidis is merely a self-promoter, and "has little to do with understanding of the world".
[20] In 2012, a state court in the German city of Cologne claimed that circumcision of male children for religious purposes was an "act of grievous bodily harm".
In an article in Die Welt, she wrote: "The circumcision of Muslim boys is an equally repulsive archaic custom as female genital mutilation among little girls.
