Germany
Interfaith , Intercultural Women
Hijri 1393–Present (AH); Common Era 1974–Present (CE)
Gonca Aydin is Vice-President of the Union of Muslim Theologians and Islamic Religious Researchers in Germany. Ms. Aydin co-founded the Union in 2007 which seeks to lead a dialogue about Islam, build bridges with other religions, and discuss ways to teach about Islam in German Schools. Ms. Aydin is a leader in promoting inter-religious and intercultural dialogue in Frankfurt, Germany. She created the Interfaith and Intercultural Women’s Network, a group of about 40 women from various religious, cultural and occupational backgrounds. She has worked as an instructor for inter-religious dialogue at DITIB-Frankfurt (The Turkish Islamic Union of Religious Institutes). For her interfaith activities, she received an award from the mayor of Frankfurt. She was selected by the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) as one of the People of the Week. Ms. Aydin is also a respected theologian and frequent participant in discussions about Islam. Ms. Aydin attended Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey, where she studied Islamic Theology. From 2003-2007 she was at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University, studying Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as the pedagogy and sociology of religion.