Turkish girls, Allah's daughters, and the contemporary German subject: Itinerary of a figure

This essay considers the very recent emergence of the category of 'Muslim' in German public discourse and through it examines current German self-understandings. In contemporary Germany, the notion of a resident 'Muslim' minority has been primarily created by relabelling and recasting immigrants from Turkey, the country's largest minority. I argue that the rearticulation of longstanding storylines about abused women of Turkish background - increasingly presented as 'Muslim' - serves as a key point of transfer in this shift from ethnonational to religious framings. Analysing exemplary media sources as well as the sociologist Necla Kelek's influential non-fiction book Die fremde Braut (2005), I point to the crucial and multilayered work done by gender in this shift as well as its large-scale implications for reimagining Germany and Europe.