Seyran Ateş

Who is Seyran Ateş?

Seyran Ateş 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. She is a single mother.

Her views, highly critical of an immigrant Muslim society that is often more conservative than its counterpart in Turkey, have put her at risk. Her German language book Islam needs a sexual revolution was scheduled for publication in Germany in 2009. 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 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.