Nebahat Akkoc

"I admire you for never losing your courage over all these years, but instead getting back up time and again, continuing to fight, and still fighting today," said Sibel Kekilli in her laudatory speech for Nebahat Akkoc.

"The Anne Klein Women's Award presented to Nebahat Akkoc is intended to send a political message in support of women's rights and against forced marriages in Turkey," Barbara Unmüßig explained in her speech at the award ceremony.

Southeastern Anatolia is considered backward in the West. Yet it is precisely here that women are pushing for emancipation and running stores and daycare centers. This is where the KAMER movement began, led by Nebahat Akkoç. A profile.

Nebahat Akkoc was born in a small town in eastern Turkey. Before devoting herself to women's issues, she worked as a teacher for several years. In 1980, she became politically active.

In September 2007, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Turkey co-organized a conference on the “Kurdish question” in Diyarbakır. Nebahat Akkoç was also in attendance and attempted to redefine the issue in her own words and against the backdrop of her own history.

The 2015 Anne Klein Women’s Award goes to human rights defender and women’s rights activist Nebahat Akkoc from Diyarbakir. An Armenian-Alevi Kurd from Turkey, she is a remarkable and courageous defender of human rights and of women’s rights to a life free from violence and full of self-determination.