Sibel Kekilli, the Turkish-German actress famous for her role as Shea in Game of Thrones, hid her Instagram profile earlier this month after suffering harassment from Turkish Muslims.
“For the first time and last time, I will say something to the people who hate me, most of them are Turks,” Kekilli, whose parents came from a Turkish mountain village, said in a final public post on Instagram, according to the German tabloid Bild.
“I will no longer tolerate the threats, offensive and disgusting sex photos you send me,” Kekilli declared. “You are full of hatred and jealousy. You call yourselves Muslims, but you do not accept people, especially women or other faiths. You are full of sh*t …. I have pity on you, honestly. Stop following me.”
Kekilli wrote, “I say goodbye for a little while,” and then set her Instagram account to private.
According to Bild, the actress added, “All these hypercritical people have taken off their mask and shown their ugly faces.”
This is not the first time Kekilli has addressed the problem of misogyny in certain Muslim populations. In a 2006 speech, the actress declared, “I have seen that physical and mental violence is seen as normal in a Muslim family. Sadly, violence in Islam is part of the cultural heritage.”
Her remarks sparked outrage. A protester stood up in the middle of the speech and yelled, “Islam has nothing to do with violence! You insult our people!” the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported.
In March 2015, Kekilli spoke about her personal experiences with Islamic culture. She spoke about feeling “schizophrenic” and being torn “between these two worlds” with “inhuman pressure.”
“The Muslim culture can be merciless,” she warned, especially mentioning honor killings and other “displaced cultural concepts” that can have “an incredible destructive force.”
She pleaded for Muslim husbands, brothers, and fathers to treat women with more respect, describing her own path as “long, painful, and self-destructive.”
Kekilli declared that women who find work and lead western lives are treated worse than murderers. “Every day I try to go through life, despite hatred and prejudices,” the actress said. “I have not committed capital crimes, but people like me are treated by some worse than murderers.”
She told Muslim men, “Live as you think fit. And I want to live as freely as I think it is right, without you severely restricting me or even threatening me with death.”
“What is so threatening about a free woman?” Kekilli asked. She compared the cultural restraints of women to a corset of “rigid obligations” and “solid lace,” leaving her unable to breathe.
The actress’ speech drew widespread praise in Germany, and in May 2015, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation named her an “Author of Freedom” for the speech. Even so, the anger against Kekilli can be seen in hateful comments directed at her on the YouTube video.
Sexual abuse of women at the hands of some Muslim men has become a serious issue throughout Europe. In the past few years, gangs of Muslim men — mostly Pakistanis, Somalis, and northern Africans — have been caught and convicted of abusing young women and girls in English cities like Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Bristol, Aylesbury, Peterborough, and Keighley.
So-called “grooming gangs” have been uncovered in at least sixteen British towns and cities, as PJ Media’s Bruce Bawer has reported.
This month, a similar story broke in Newcastle, where a probe called Operation Sanctuary, launched in 2014, has led to the arrest of no less than 461 suspects, who are believed to have raped at least 278 victims. At least 111 perpetrators have been convicted so far.
Even so, political correctness has silenced journalists, who feared to report the story because they might be branded racists or Islamophobes for suggesting the religion of these perpetrators. Indeed, a member of the British Parliament was forced to step down after speaking out on these issues.
It’s not just England, either. Swedish authorities have covered up and dismissed rapes by Muslim men. A judge in Kekilli’s home country of Germany actually acquitted a Turkish man of rape by ruling that his forced violent sex was not considered rape in his “culture.”
Kekilli deserves praise for speaking out about these issues, and it is tragic to hear how even her fellow Turkish-Germans have harassed and mistreated her.
The actress is perhaps best known for her role in Game of Thrones as the prostitute Shae, whom she played from 2011 to 2014. Shae was a fan favorite, the love interest of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). She betrayed him toward the end, and he killed her after he narrowly escaped execution in Season 4.
While Kekilli’s 2015 speech is not available in English, the YouTube video has an English subtitle option.
Click “Load More” to watch her speech.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member