ZEYNEP AKGÜL

Ankara- Rümeysa Çamdereli is a Muslim feminist activist and musician. She graduated from the Computer Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University and she completed her master's degree in the Department of Women's Studies at Istanbul University. She is one of the founders of “Reçel Blog (Jam Blog)” founded by dissident Muslim women, and Turkey’s first Muslim Feminists’ Association called “Havle”. We talked to her about her life story and about the meaning, possibilities, and limits of being a Muslim feminist.

· You were born in Diyarbakır and then your life story continues in İstanbul. Could you tell us your life story?

My father is an academic, he worked in different universities. We lived in Kırıkkale and Ankara after Diyarbakır, and then we came to İstanbul.

· You started playing electric guitar in the last year of high school. Why electric guitar?

Actually, I started playing electric guitar by chance. I was playing for a band in high school, for a folk band. One of our friends who played the electric guitar for the band was going to join an orchestra and suggested me to play the electric guitar. Then I kept playing it. I thought about what other people would think of me and how a woman wearing a headscarf with an electric guitar would be considered and etc. but for a short time.

· We hear both traditional and universal-contemporary melodies in your music, what would you like to say about your music?

I had the chance to produce different styles of music when I was a student at university. I played folk music when I was a high school student and then I thought a lot about playing electric guitar at Boğaziçi University Folklore Club. I also had the chance to performing theater music. To learn more about the electric guitar, we organized rock/pop music concerts. I also worked with Kardeş Türküler (a contemporary ethnic/folkloric band).

· Living in this region is like being stuck into stereotypes… And you are a guitarist wearing a headscarf. Do you face any challenges?

To tell the truth, this issue entered my life when a newspaper published an article about me when I was 18 years old. Before that article, it was quite natural for me. 13 years have passed and the article has no effect on me now. And there are many women like me now. Most of them do very good work. I can express myself with what I produce, not with my headscarf identity.

“The headscarf issue is a women's issue”

· On many online platforms, you are called, “The guitarist wearing a headscarf”. Some people say, “Her headscarf is not interesting but the interesting thing is that she can play November Rain guitar solo very well.” The headscarf has become a serious issue in your life not only in your career. In an interview, you said that you took part in feminism because of your head craft. Could you talk about this issue?

The headscarf issue is a women’s issue. Actually, I didn’t understand this for years. For a long time, the male understanding around me made me think that the headscarf issue was discrimination against my Muslim identity. But I understood that I faced discrimination for years for being a woman and Muslim. I learned that all women faced the same discrimination as I read more. My headscarf just forms a ground to face discrimination.

“We exist and we are here”

·  Secular people ignore your feminist identity because you wear a headscarf and religious people don’t want to talk about a feminist woman wearing a headscarf… What would you like to tell about the relationship between Muslim feminists and other feminists?

We exist and we are here. To be honest, I don't know what to say more. Surely, there are many valuable discussions. It is important to give answers to particularly feminists on many different issues because there are a lot of arguments about Islam and I think these arguments haven’t been conducted correctly for years. Apart from that, we continue our journey by struggling for our existence without “giving an account” to anyone.

· Do you have any new projects now?

I hope I will release a few of my songs as single songs soon, and maybe in 2021. I have started working on them. I am also working on a project along with my Palestinian friend living in Germany.