Hijab brought Me Unusual Serenity: German Actress Ava Celik

Berlin: Playing the role of a Muslim student in her latest film, a young German actress has revealed that she felt a strange serenity when she put on hijab for the first time, despite of people looks at her.

"When I put on my headscarf and saw only my pure face, I had initially a strange feeling," Bild German newspaper reported quoting Ava Celik, the 25-year-old actress as saying.

"It may have been due to the preparation for the role, because when I wore the costume, I went upright at once and had an unusual serenity.

"On the road again, I saw turns and looks at me, for two or three times. But I could not really interpret the looks," she added.

"I was born in Berlin and did not personally experience exclusion. The term is of course far interpretative nature and so I think tolerance is always something individual," Celik said.

"Good will alone is not enough, but I think if both sides have it, that's a good start."


German actress Ava Celik is playing the role of Sevda, a young Muslim high school student in Berlin who dons a hijab in the film produced by German official TV channel, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF).

She plays an intelligent Muslim who has a liberal, non-religious parents. This girl opted voluntarily for life as a devout follower of Islam.

Germany has Europe's second-biggest Muslim population after France, and Islam comes third in Germany after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.

It has between 3.8 and 4.3 million Muslims, making up some five percent of the total 82 million population, according to government-commissioned studies.