A new documentary, Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam, shows Ateş’ work at the mosque, where women and men worship together, there’s an LGBTQ youth group, and Ateş encourages discussion and debate.
Lorentzen then planned to make a film about female imams. Her mother sent her an article about Ateş, telling Lorentzen she needed to talk to her if she wanted to make a good film. The filmmaker went to Berlin to meet Ateş. She was struck by the singularity of Ateş’ vision, her determination, and how she stood out from other leaders. She decided to make a film focused on Ateş.
Ateş was born in 1963 in Turkey, and her family moved to Berlin when she was 6 years old. Like many children of immigrants, she translated for her relatives. She says that while doing this she saw how they were treated as lesser by people at institutions, such as schools, the police station, and hospitals. That’s why she decided to become a lawyer to fight for people like her relatives, leaving home at 17 to go to law school.
“When I opened the mosque and had a congregation that accepts me as an imam, I am an imam,” she said. “Look to the history of the religion or to Israel or to Rome, and it’s the same — men always telling the story, and men are on top and women are behind them. Just follow the man. Why? I can walk myself, and I have good orientation, so why do I have to follow them? Why don’t they follow me? Then I became a woman like my idols, and I started the mosque.
Another way Ateş’ leadership is different, captured in the documentary, is that she holds listening circles at the mosque, encouraging discussion and debate. Ateş said she doesn’t want people to think they have to accept everything the imam says. She said that just that day members of the mosque had discussed the question of whether religion helps make you free.
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