Sociologist, Berlin
Dr Necla Kelek emigrated from Turkey to Germany at the age of ten. After training as a technical draughtswoman, she studied economics and sociology at the University of Hamburg, where she completed her doctorate in 2001 on the topic of "Islam in everyday life". From 2005 to 2009, she was a permanent member of the German Islam Conference. She is a member of the Senate of the German National Foundation. With her journalistic contributions, appearances and books ("Die fremde Braut", "Die verlorenen Söhne" and "Bittersüsse Heimat"), she has had a lasting impact on the discussion about Muslims in the German-speaking world and about integration issues. For this she received the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis in 2005 and the Hildegard-von-Bingen-Preis in 2009. Her latest book, "Mein Streit mit den Wächter des Islam" (My dispute with the guardians of Islam), was published in 2010 by Kiepenheuer und Witsch Verlag in Cologne.
Thursday, 19. May 2011, 18:15 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOL-G-201 (Aula)
In its history, Islam has developed a special relationship to freedom, but also to the individual. How does it relate to the classic European values of enlightenment, freedom and individual responsibility? What should women in particular expect when they are involved in an everyday life that is defined by the Islamic self-image? The aim is to show how the concept of freedom in Islam has developed and manifests itself historically and currently. This is followed by very practical questions of Islam in Europe.