(Deutsche Welle) A lawyer, activist, author and now imam, Seyran Ates has long lent a critical voice to debates about migration, women’s rights and religious freedom in Germany and beyond.
Ates co-founded the “liberal” Ibn Ruschd-Goethe Mosque on the third floor of St. John’s Church near Berlin’s Tiergarten in 2017, a holy space where women and men can pray and preach together, and where the Quran is interpreted through a contemporary lens. The mosque welcomes Muslims of all denominations, and sexual orientation.
The female imam, who was born in Istanbul in 1963 and has lived in Germany since 1969, has since become a polarizing figure who enjoys much community support, but also endures constant hate mail and death threats. She lives under permanent police guard.
