Ümmiye Koçak’s team to attend theater festival in Germany

MERSİN – Anadolu Agency

Ümmiye Koçak, a villager from the southern province of Mersin’s Arslanköy village who captured the hearts of many with her all-female theater group, will attend the Stuttgart European Theaters Festival between Nov. 16 and Dec. 8. 

Speaking to the press, the 61-year-old said she and her team are very pleased to represent Turkey in Germany, adding that they had attended many organizations both in Turkey and abroad previously. 

“Not only in Turkey, but in any part of the world, it is believed that rural women cannot go anywhere. We broke the taboos and continue doing so. As nine Anatolian women, we will go there and represent Turkey. Participants from more than 40 countries will join the festival. We are very excited. We want to be role models for rural women,” Koçak said.

Koçak and her theater team will stage their own plays “Baba Ben Geldim” (Father, I am home) and “Başardık” (We did it) in the festival. 

Stating that they wanted to be goodwill and culture ambassadors, Koçak said, “We have staged the first play in many places so far. The other play is our own story. We really did it atop the Taurus Mountains. Now we seek sponsors to go to the festival.” 

Koçak rose to stardom in recent years after being discovered for forming the Arslanköy Women’s Theater Group in 2001 to raise awareness about the lives of women in rural areas. She directed and appeared in an ad with the world-famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017.