Features on these issues provide subjects for discussion and enhance the conversation on Talking Germany. The two discuss the ritual circumcision of Muslim and Jewish boys, which a German court recently described as physical mutilation. They also talk about an initiative to advise elderly people on how to use the internet and social networking sites, and about a literary tour of the port of Hamburg.
Aydan Özoğuz is one of the new women in positions of power among Germany’s Social Democrats. She has been deputy SPD leader since December 2011.
Short Biography
Aydan Özoğuz cannot be pigeonholed. She defies stereotyping and patronization. Born in 1967 to Turkish immigrants in Hamburg, she learned to assert herself, whether in primary school, struggling with the fine points of the German language, at the academic secondary school for which her teacher did not recommend her, or later at university, where she earned a master’s degree in English Studies. With her family background, Aydan Özoğuz has played a pioneering role in many positions – as she does in the SPD leadership. Family and integration policies are the key aspects of her political work. Aydan Özoğuz is a devout Muslim married to a devout Roman Catholic, and has a nine-year-old daughter. She lives with family in Hamburg.