What does it mean to be a Muslim living in a free society? How well are one’s own wishes tolerated by the cultural background of one’s parents? What significance does the commandment of virginity have for young people from immigrant families?

In her subjectively narrated film, journalist and filmmaker Güner Yasemin Balci receives very personal answers to these questions. Balci grew up in Berlin-Neukölln, the daughter of Turkish immigrants. From an early age, she questioned why her Muslim neighbors would time and again deny their children the right to a self-determined life. And what price must the young generation pay in order to be free?

Psychologist Ahmad Mansour, lawyer and feminist Seyran Ateş, Femen activist Zana Ramadani and student Arife Yalniz are the film’s main players. All had to fight to live their own lives, had to break away from family and friends because they did not want to hold to morals that punish sexuality and are preached in mosques today as if nothing has changed since the Muslim philosopher Al-Ghazali wrote his Book on the Etiquette of Marriage 900 years ago. They are all working to change and enlighten the society. Their concerns are simultaneously political and personal.

Many of what are seen as Muslim immigrant problems – such as the suppression of women, excessively macho attitudes and the propensity for violence amongst men, forced marriages and abuse in the name of honor – have their roots in the core theme of the entire Islam world: the demonization of female sexuality. “If only we could put a stop to this obsession with virginity,” says Seyran Ateş, “then this madness would be over.”

Director: Güner Yasemin Balci
Writer: Güner Yasemin Balci
With: Seyran Ateş, Ahmad Mansour, Zana Ramadani, Arife Yalniz
Cinematographers: Yoliswa von Dallwitz, Susanna Salonen
Editor: Lena Rem
Music: Martina Eisenreich
Commissioning editors: Burkhard Althoff (ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel), Kathrin Brinkmann (ZDF/ARTE THEMA)
Production manager: Brigit Mulders
Producer: Andrea Ufer
Sponsor: Nordmedia

– Juliane-Bartel-Preis, 2016
– Bayerischer Fernsehpreis, 2016
– Nominated, PRIX EUROPA, 2016
– Nominated, CIVIS Media Prize for Integration, 2017