Ann-Kristin Kowarsch

Ann-Kristin Kowarsch, (born 1974) is a German women's rights activist. She was born in the region of Hannover. In 1991, she became involved in Kurdish student movements and took part in protests against Germany's arms sales to Turkey. She started teaching German language courses to Kurdish refugees at the Kurdish Institute of Hannover in 1995. In the process, she became familiar with Kurdish issues and learned to speak Kurmanji and in the same year, she visited Kurdistan for the first time in a trip to the city of Amedi.

She is the Board-Secretary and vice-chairperson of the International Free Women's Foundation(Internationale Vrije Vrouwen Stichting) based in Rotterdam and also a founding member of Navenda Jivana Jinê UTAMARA(Center for Women's Issues), which was established in 2006.

External links

• The Womens Centre at the Maxmur Refugee Camp, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, Newsletter 80, November 2003.
• Free Women's Foundation.
• Daphne Project: Resources for Combating Violence Against Children, Young People and Women.
• Psychological consequences of trauma experiences on migrated Kurdish women in the European Union.
• Tradition, Emanzipation und Integration Kurdische Frauen in Deutschland, Zentrum Für Kurdische Studien e. V., Hamburg, July 2007.
• Kurdish and Turkish Mothers: Let’s Build Peace Together!, By Ann-Kristin Kowarsch, in Girls Change the World, pp.22-23, International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, May 2007.