Hengameh Yaghoobifarah (born 1991 in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

) is a German-

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

journalist and author.

Personal life

Yaghoobifarah was born in

parents, both academics, but grew up in

Buchholz in der Nordheide Buchholz in der Nordheide (, ; Northern Low Saxon: ''Bookholt'') is the largest town in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km southwest of Hamburg. Geography Buchholz is home to the Brunsberg ...

near

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. During middle school, Yaghoobifarah started viewing themself as left-wing and joined 'solid, the youth organization of

The Left The Left may refer to: *Left-wing politics in general or to the following political parties: ** The Left (Bulgaria) or ''Levitsata!'' ** The Left (Czech Republic) or ''Levice'' ** ''Die Linke'', also known as The Left ** The Left (Italy) or ''La Si ...

. They would later study

media studies Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but it mos ...

and

Scandinavian studies Scandinavian studies or ''Scandinavistics'' is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultura ...

at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

and

Linköping University Linköping University (LiU; ) is a public university, public research university based in Linköping, Sweden. Originally established in 1969, it was granted full university status in 1975 and is one of Sweden's largest academic institutions. T ...

where, in 2014, they acquired their bachelor's degree with a thesis on the color pink in feminist discourse. Yaghoobifarah moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 2014 and has lived there since. Yaghoobifarah identifies as

and uses the English singular pronoun

they In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accus ...

, and no pronouns in German.

Activism and work

Yaghoobifarah works as a

contributing editor A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership dra ...

for the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Missy Magazine Missy or Missie is a feminine first name, often a short form of Melissa. People * Mathilde de Morny (1863-1944), French aristocrat and artist * Michele Avila, Michele "Missy" Avila (1968-1985), American murder victim * Missie Berteotti (born 196 ...

, as well as having freelanced for multiple other publications such as Spex, an.schläge, Migazine, and

bento A is a Japanese-style single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch, typically including rice and packaged in a box with a lid (often a segmented box with different parts of the meal placed in different sections). Outside Japa ...

; while also maintaining a personal

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

named ''Habibitus'' in

taz Taz or TAZ may refer to: Geography *Taz (river), a river in western Siberia, Russia *Taz Estuary, the estuary of the river Taz in Russia People * Taz people, an ethnic group in Russia ** Taz language, a form of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by ...

. Yaghoobifarah also ran a personal blog, named ''QUEER VANITY'', about fashion and politics between 2014 and 2017. The main focus of their works lies on the topics of

queer theory Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term "queer theory" is broadly associated with the study a ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

body positivity Body positivity is a social movement that promotes a positive view of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities. Proponents focus on the appreciation of the functionality and health of the human body instea ...

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

, and

anti-fascism Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

. Yaghoobifarah was a speaker at the 2017 European Lesbian* Conference on the place that lesbians are given in popular media. Yaghoobifarah has also held several lectures on feminism and anti-racism at various universities in Germany. In 2019, Yaghoobifarah published their first book, (), in cooperation with Fatma Aydemir and 14 other German authors, including

Sasha Marianna Salzmann Sasha Marianna Salzmann (born in Volgograd, Soviet Union on 21 August 1985) is a German playwright, essayist, theatre curator and novelist. They are a writer in residence at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin where they were artistic director of t ...

, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Max Czollek,

Mithu Sanyal Mithu Melanie Sanyal (born 1971 in Düsseldorf, Germany"Dr. Mithu Sanyal"< ...

Margarete Stokowski Margarete Stokowski (born April 14, 1986 in Zabrze, Poland) is a Polish-German writer and essayist. She is best known for her weekly essays for the magazine Spiegel Online where she writes about the current state of feminism in Germany. The numb ...

, Olga Grjasnowa,

Reyhan Şahin Reyhan Şahin (born 1980), known professionally as Lady Bitch Ray or Doctor Bitch Ray, is a Turkish-German rapper, author, linguist and former radio host. Biography Şahin was born in Bremen, West Germany. Her parents are Alevis and come fr ...

, and Simone Dede Ayivi. The book is described as a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

and primarily consists of a collection of essays by the different authors. It focuses on topics of racism, discrimination, and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

; seeking to deconstruct an '

ethnic An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

and

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

' German understanding of Heimat (roughly:

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

). The book was translated into English in 2021. Yaghoobifarah published their debut novel, ''Ministerium der Träume'' (), in 2021. It tells the story of the life of

teenagers in Germany being faced with racism and the xenophobic attacks of the late '90s. Their second novel ''Schwindel'' () came out in 2024, "a wonderfully messy open-air chamber drama and a bold addition to the canon of queer literature". Together with Fatma Aydemir, Enrico Ippolito and Miryam Schellbach, Yaghoobifarah funded the German literary magazine Delfi. Magazin für neue Literatur. Yaghoobifarah joined the political party

in January 2024.

Controversies and criticism

Cultural appropriation and racism

In the Article ''Fusion Revisited: Karneval der Kulturlosen'' (English: Fusion Revisited:

Carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

of the cultureless), published in

, Yaghoobifarah accused the

Fusion Festival The Fusion Festival is a music festival, music and arts festival with a counterculture, countercultural character. It takes place at a former military airport called Müritz Airpark in Lärz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in northeastern Germany. The ...

and its 'white audience' of racism and

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically ari ...

. Among other things, they criticized the mild spicing of food and the wearing of

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as dreads or locs, are a Hairstyle, hairstyle made of rope-like strands of matted hair. Dreadlocks can form naturally in Hair#Texture, very curly hair, or they can be created with techniques like twisting, Backcombing, ba ...

. The article was strongly criticized by parts of the German left at the time, as some viewed Yaghoobifarah's argumentation as reminiscent of talking points used by the New Right as well as a justification of

ethnopluralism Ethnopluralism or ethno-pluralism, also known as ethno-differentialism, is a far-right political model which attempts to preserve separate and bordered ethno-cultural regions. According to its promoters, significant foreign cultural elements in a g ...

. In October 2017, Yaghoobifarah published the article ''Deutsche, schafft Euch ab!'' (English: Germans, abolish yourselves!), in

with a title and conclusion in reference to the book '' Germany Abolishes Itself'' by

Thilo Sarrazin Thilo Sarrazin (born 12 February 1945) is a German politician and former member of the SPD, writer, senator of finance for the State of Berlin from January 2002 until April 2009, former member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank ...

. In the article, they consistently use the derogatory epithet ''

Kartoffel Kartoffel (German language, German for ''potato,'' ) is a derogatory slang term used by other cultures to describe Germans. It is also used in a humorous way and as a self-denomination. In English language, English, kartoffel can also be used lite ...

'' to refer to Germans, who are spoken of negatively. They also labeled the culture of Germans as dirty ('Dreckskultur'), in reference to the aforementioned epithet. The article closes with a sentence stating the Germans are abolishing themselves, and that Yaghoobifarah hopes they hurry up in doing so. The journalist

Jan Fleischhauer Jan Fleischhauer (born in 1962 in Osnabrück) is a German journalist and author. Biography Jan Fleischhauer studied Literature and Philosophy at Universität Hamburg, then he went to Henri-Nannen-Schule for Journalism. Since 1989 he has work ...

criticized the article and those that praised it for holding a

double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...

, viewing such publications as incompatible with the goals of

. The journalist Elke Halefeldt also criticized the article for hypocrisy and commented in saying "So we learnt: racism against Germans isn't racism". A group of ten issued a complaint to the German press council which accused the article of extreme racism and

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

which they perceived as falling under the laws pertaining to ''

Volksverhetzung (), in English "incitement to hatred" (used also in the official English translation of the German Criminal Code), "incitement of popular hatred", "incitement of the masses", or "instigation of the people", is a concept in German criminal law t ...

'', the press council rejected the claim however, stating that the article is merely a statement of opinion.

"All cops are berufsunfähig"

In the article ''Abschaffung der Polizei: All cops are berufsunfähig'' (English: Abolition of the police: All cops are unfit for work), Yaghoobifarah made reference to the international

Black Lives Matter movement Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and racial inequality experienced by black people, and to promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutalit ...

and aimed to write a satirical article addressing racism in the Police, which they claimed is also present in Germany. The title is a reference to the abbreviation '

ACAB ACAB, an acronym for all cops are bastards, is a political slogan associated with those opposed to the police and commonly expressed as a catchphrase in graffiti or tattoos. It is sometimes expressed as 1312, with each digit representing the po ...

' (All cops are bastards), the same abbreviation also being used in the print version. The article presents a

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

about where police officers could work if the police were abolished. It concludes with the statement:

Off the top of my head there is only one suitable option that comes to mind: the landfill. Not as garbage collectors with keys to houses, but in the dump, where they are surrounded by garbage. They should certainly feel most comfortable among their kind.

The article was heavily criticized in the German media. Some journalists and politicians viewed it as equating humans with garbage, and some even understood it as a case of ''

'' or 'group-based misanthropy' against police officers. Schlecky Silberstein defended the article in ''

Deutschlandfunk Kultur Deutschlandfunk Kultur (; abbreviated to ''DLF Kultur'' or ''DKultur'') is a culture-oriented radio station and part of Deutschlandradio, a set of three national radio stations in Germany. Initially named ''DeutschlandRadio Berlin'', the station ...

'', saying that the article was good satire and that critics simply didn't understand it. The two German police unions, ''

Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft The German Police Trade Union (, DPolG) is a trade union in Germany. Representing 94,000 police employees, it is the second largest union for police employees in Germany, following the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP). It is affiliated with the Ger ...

'' and ''

Gewerkschaft der Polizei The Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP; ) is a trade union in Germany. It represents 181,000 police employees, and is one of eight industrial affiliations of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB). The GdP is one of the three trade unions for ...

'', announced that they were filing a criminal report against Yaghoobifarah, upon which the

Berlin Police The Berlin Police (; formerly , ) is the force for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state () agencies. The Berlin Police is headed by the ('Chief of Police'), Dr. Barbara Slowik. ...

president Barbara Slowik issued an internal letter to all officers where she pointed to German

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

laws as well as past court decisions on slogans such as

. The federal minister of the Interior at the time,

Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister for the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the ...

, also announced to file a criminal report against Yaghoobifarah, but decided against it after public backlash. German president

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who has served as President of Germany since 2017. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again f ...

also criticized the article. There was also internal criticism within the editorial staff of

Bettina Gaus Bettina Gaus (5 December 1956 – 27 October 2021) was a German journalist. Life Gaus was born in Munich in December 1956, the daughter of Erika Gaus and publicist and diplomat Günter Gaus. She attended the Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munic ...

for example, accused Yaghoobifarah of disregarding

human dignity Dignity is a human's contentment attained by satisfying physiological needs and a need in development. The content of contemporary dignity is derived in the new natural law theory as a distinct human good. As an extension of the Age of Enlighten ...

for

clickbait Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or a thumbnail hyperlink, link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and view, read, stream or listen to the linked piece of online cont ...

. After having received hate and threats for their article, Yaghoobifarah decided to seek police protection, which some viewed as hypocritical.

Selected publications

* ''Schwindel'', 2024,

Aufbau-Verlag Aufbau Verlag is a German publisher. It was founded in Berlin in 1945 and became the biggest publisher in East Germany (GDR). During that time it specialised in Socialist literature, socialist and Russian literature. Aufbau Verlag (officially s ...

, ISBN 9783351051235 * ''Delfi. Magazin für neue Literatur'', 2023,

Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and '' Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstei ...

, ISBN 9783546100908
''Unverpackt'', radio play, 2023, WDR 5
* ''Habibitus'', 2023,

, ISBN 9783841231192 * ''Ministerium der Träume'', 2021,

, ISBN 9783841226853 * With Fatma Aydemir: ''Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum'', 2020, Ullstein Taschenbuch, ISBN 9783843720427

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaghoobifarah, Hengameh 1991 births Writers from Kiel Writers from Berlin Living people German bloggers German columnists German LGBTQ journalists German non-binary people German people of Iranian descent Non-binary activists Non-binary journalists LGBTQ bloggers Die Tageszeitung people 21st-century German journalists 21st-century German LGBTQ people