Muslim model upsets family by posing for Playboy cover

'I wanted to be free': Muslim model upsets family by posing nude for Playboy cover

By Deborah Arthurs
Last updated at 5:20 PM on 19th April 2011

Strict: Turkish German actress Sila Sahin says her childhood was 'restricting'

Sila Sahin, a 25-year-old Turkish German living in Berlin, had until now been regarded as a glowing example of how a modern Muslim girl should behave in a multicultural society.
A successful actress starring in German television soap opera Good Times, Bad Times, she pleased her many fans and made her Turkish family proud.
But her latest move has shocked some of those fans, and enraged those closest to her.
Posing provocatively on the cover of German Playboy magazine with one breast exposed, Sila Sahin seems to be sending a clear and deliberate message to her conservative Turkish family.
'I did it because I wanted to be free at last,' she said. 'These photographs are a liberation from the restrictions of my childhood.'
Her family have, unsurprisingly, reacted with horror, and her mother has cut off all contact with the actress.
'My mother is still angry. It will be even more difficult with my grandparents, my aunts and my uncles,' she said on the website devoted to her television soap.
She has, however, managed to talk to her actor father, who expressed concern over the pressure she will inevitably face from those not only within the Turkish community in Germany, but from the wider Muslim community as a whole.
Ms Sahin's declared intention was to used the controversial Playboy photoshoot as a call to action for other Turkish girls who suffer the effects of their strict backgrounds, where women's choices are often limited, husbands are chosen for the girls and chastity closely controlled.

Liberating? I did it because I wanted to be free,' said Sila Sahin of the nude Playboy photographs that offended her Turkish family

Her message to these girls? 'For too long I tried to do everything right,' she says. 'I want these photos to show young Turkish women it's okay for you to live however you choose.'
'Many of my countrymen think it's great that I can be so free. With the shoot I hoped to say to them that we do not necessarily have to live under these rules given to us.

Popular: Sila Sahin on the red carpet with actor Joern Schloenvoigt

In what is undeniably a groundbreaking move, Ms Sahin is the first Turkish woman ever to strip for the cover of Playboy.
Indeed, in the 12-page article that accompanies the revealing photographs, Ms Sahin says she feels 'like Che Guevara', adding that the semi-naked photoshoot was a bid to express her freedom.
'My upbringing was conservative,' she told Playboy. 'I was always told, you must not go out, you must not make yourself look so attractive, you mustn't have male friends.

'I have always abided by what men say. As a result I developed an extreme desire for freedom. I feel like Che Guevara. I have to do everything I want, otherwise I feel like I may as well be dead.'
And according to Ms Sahin, her friends have been impressed by the magazine spread. 'They admire my courage,' she says.
But while her friends and some fans may be impressed, Ms Sahin's family have expressed their disappointment.
And despite her outward conviction, Ms Sahin was devastated her actions should be met with such a harsh response.
In an ill-advised move, Ms Sahin only informed her parents of her Playboy spread via an interview on German television channel RTL, just one day before the nude photographs were to be published.
In an impassioned interview, as she displayed the revealing photographs, she pleaded with her mother and father to understand the reasons behind her decision to pose naked.
The emotional actress begged for clemency from her family.
'I hope you can forgive me, she said.
'Please let me come home.'