Necla Kelek, 49, best-selling author

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2005

Necla Kelek, 49, a Turkish-born German sociologist, thinks she was lucky to be born without good looks. "It meant I didn't get married off, like the other Turkish girls," she said. "There were no bidders."

She found solace in school, but her life was bound by prohibitions: no swimming, no sports, no playing outdoors and no German friends because they were infidels. At age 17, Kelek could no longer bear it. She ran away the day her father threatened her with an ax.

Years later, she investigated the forced marriages of thousands of Muslim girls in Germany, many of them "imported" for that purpose.

Her book "The Foreign Bride" became an instant best seller this year and focused attention on a widely ignored issue. Up to 15,000 girls, many of them between 14 and 18 years old, are forced into marriage every year to Turkish boys living in Germany, Kelek said. The imported brides become the transmission belt for other relatives who join them in the name of "family reunion."

Often poor and uneducated, the "imported brides" are treated like domestic slaves in Germany, virtual property of their in-laws, Kelek writes. They stay in Turkish ghettos, inside their homes, cannot learn German and bring up their children in the same anti-German isolation. By importing brides, Turks in Germany perpetuate segregation and thwart integration, Kelek warns.

Her interviews with girls have prompted her to campaign for changes in the law, notably to require "imported brides" to be at least 21 years old, and preferably 24, as in Denmark and Sweden. She also calls for tougher sentences for "honor killings."

Putting the spotlight on the immigrant world has earned her wide praise in the German press, but a smear campaign in Germany's Turkish newspapers.

"They said I was insulting Turkey and Islam," she said. But Kelek insists she criticizes not Islam but hypocrisy.

"Educated Turks, just like many Germans, close their eyes and say that imported brides are a private issue. It isn't. It undermines the values of our own democracy. We European women are free to choose. But we accept the abuse of women in our midst supposedly because we must respect the customs of a different culture."

Kelek said she would not stop until the law changes. "The situation is sickening."