Women’s Struggles: Migrant Feminist Self-Organising

A social pedagogue, conflict mediator and long-time advocate for migrant women, Aso Agace has devoted her career to educational counselling and intercultural dialogue. In 1981, she founded Hînbûn, an international education and advice centre for women, their families and migrant women affected by violence, which she led for 35 years. Since 1991, she has worked as a counsellor and interpreter at Zentrum Überleben, a foundation for survivors of torture.

Kook-Nam Cho-Ruwwe is a board member of DaMigra, Germany’s umbrella organisation of migrant women’s associations, and serves on the advisory board of Bundesstiftung Gleichstellung – the federal foundation for gender equality. Having arrived in West Germany from South Korea in 1970 as part of the labour recruitment agreements, she worked as a registered nurse in Berlin. In 1978, she co-founded the Koreanische Frauengruppe in Deutschland, which campaigns for equal opportunities for migrant women in employment and social participation.

Elisabeth Kimmerle earned her doctorate at the ZZF Potsdam with her research on migration, gender, and political spaces. Previously, she worked as co-project lead and editor of the German-Turkish online platform taz.gazete. Her book Frauen in Bewegung. Politische Räume von Migrantinnen aus der Türkei in West-Berlin, 1961-1989 was published by Wallstein in 2025. She currently researches intimacy and lethal violence in Germany since the late nineteenth century.

Serpil Yeter studied painting at arts academy İstanbul Devlet Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi. She lived in Berlin for more than 20 years and currently works in Istanbul and Bodrum, Turkey. Between 1980 and 1985, she was among the founders of the Turkish-German puppet theatre group Taschentheatergruppe, which collaborated, among others, with the Theatermanufaktur Berlin. Her works have been exhibited internationally and are included in numerous public and private collections.