Berivan Kilic

I’m a kebab seller, a political scientist and a writer.

Shop

Soon

Limited prints from the exhibition “Two Women. One Kebab Knife.” by Victoria Jung and Berivan Kilic. The shop opens soon.

Don’t miss the launch on Instagram!

50 Grad

That’s how hot it gets at the kebab grill. My mother has been working there for 35 years, and now I do the same, every single day, despite having a university degree. Because this is our way of resisting.

DIE ZEIT, September 2025 (in German)
Photos: Victoria Jung

Read it here

After 35 years, every move comes naturally

She dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher

In the beginning, the shop barely made money

Living Kurdish culture in Germany wasn’t always easy

What else is there to read?

A selection of my writing

TagesspiegelOctober 2025
Four Criminals and Me in a Group Chat (opens in a new tab)
“It’s Saturday night. I’m lying in bed, phone in hand, when a WhatsApp notification pops up: ‘Dagobert added you to the group “Politicians”.’ My first reaction? What the fuck?”
I ended up in a group chat with convicted criminals. On smuggled phones, the young men tell me about fear, anxiety and loneliness.
PPoliticiansDagobert, Little One, Montana, Diabel, You
1. Dagobert added you to the group “Politicians”.
2. This message was deleted.21:47 ✓✓
4. Could really go for some fries too.Fresh out of the fryer 😂With tasty seasoningThis message was deleted.21:49
Photo: Victoria Jung x Berivan Kilic
Excerpt from the group chat “Politicians”: Dagobert adds Berivan to the group. She sends a photo of her kebab plate with fries. The reply from prison: “Could really go for some fries too. Fresh out of the fryer. With tasty seasoning.” The chat deletes itself every 24 hours.
DIE ZEITMarch 2025
My friend, the Prisoner (opens in a new tab)
“No small talk, no waffle, straight to the point. The clock in the visiting room is ticking.”
For more than three years I’ve been visiting my best friend in prison. What incarceration does to a friendship.
VICEFebruary 2024
I celebrated Carnival at the women’s prison (opens in a new tab)
“The six princesses have cut extra slits into the sides of their pink satin dresses to reveal a little more skin. Their hair has been carefully styled. Hardly surprising: all six work as hairdressers at the prison in Ossendorf, a district of Cologne. Covering around eleven hectares, it is the largest of North Rhine-Westphalia’s 36 correctional facilities.”
Carnival behind bars – or: partying is a human right.
VICEMarch 2024
Secrets, arguments, making up, repeat (opens in a new tab)
“Instead of asking us intrusive questions about our love lives that do nothing but feed a thirst for stereotypical clichés, people should give us some props. For instance, for taking our love lives into our own hands.”
Secret dates, family pressure and a hen party gone wrong. Plus, in the final print edition of VICE Magazine.
DIE ZEITAugust 2025
Kolonya (opens in a new tab)
“Between piles of shoes in the hallway and kisses on both cheeks, my Kurdish parents’ home has a fixed ritual for greeting guests: a few drops of lemon cologne into open hands.”
A few drops of lemon cologne in your palms: that’s how my family welcomes guests. A story about an age-old ritual and my grandfather’s shaving routine.
VICEDecember 2017
Brawler, Dealer, Gang Member: Rapper G-Mac Has Done It All (opens in a new tab)
“‘Everyone with an arrest warrant should run now,’ someone shouts. It sounds like a joke. But just seconds later, nearly ten men take off in different directions, disappearing into the darkness. G-Mac, too.”
A portrait of G-Mac, caught between drugs, biker gangs and rap – and the question of whether you can ever truly leave your past behind.
Wochenschau Verlag2026
Youth. Growing Up in the New World Order (opens in a new tab)
An introduction to the civic education work of the Ferhat Unvar Initiative.

Events

Coming up

13–14 November 2026
Zwei Tage WG (opens in a new tab)
Congress Park Hanau · With the Ferhat Unvar Initiative & Haus für Demokratie und Vielfalt Hanau
Democracy, diversity, education: What kind of society do we want to live in? Friday brings workshops and professional exchange, while Saturday welcomes everyone with films, discussions, a youth panel and music.

Throwback

May 2026
Döner & Democracy (opens in a new tab)
Frechen · With Jusos Frechen, SPD Frechen, the mayor of Frechen, Kai-Uwe Tietz, and Daniel Walter, SPD Member of the Bundestag
“Politics You Can Taste!” A moderated discussion with Frechen Mayor Kai-Uwe Tietz and Bundestag member Daniel Walter on military service, housing and structural change. Afterwards, kebabs from Frechener Grill for everyone.
February 2026
Unreleased: Tourstart (opens in a new tab)
Frankfurt am Main · Unreleased x Ferhat Unvar Initiative
Rap, community and remembrance: 1500 people remember the nine victims of the far-right terrorist attack in Hanau – Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz and Gökhan Gültekin.
November 2025
Five Years of the Ferhat Unvar Initiative (opens in a new tab)
Hanau · With the Ferhat Unvar Initiative
“We are only dead when we are forgotten.” To mark Ferhat’s birthday and the initiative’s fifth anniversary, the programme featured a youth panel, speeches by politicians and live music.
September 2025
Two Women. One Kebab Knife. (opens in a new tab)
Frechen · PopUp Youth Culture Festival 2025
A mother. A daughter. Two women behind the kebab counter. On heritage, finding your place and empowerment, this exhibition shines a light on what often goes unseen: women working in the kebab shop. A project by Victoria Jung and Berivan Kilic. Part of the 2025 PopUp Youth Culture Festival in Frechen.
November 2022
Film | NEU (opens in a new tab)
Washington, D.C. · With the Goethe-Institut Washington, the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland
The 30th edition of Film | NEU – Washington’s annual festival of contemporary German-language cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
March 2022
Play the Burgstraße: Release-Party ”Junz“ (opens in a new tab)
Frechen · With Linie 7 e. V.
Rapper Kozarth performs his debut album live at an open-air concert outside the tower block where he grew up. A project by Ralf Schroeder and Berivan Kilic of Frechen-based cultural collective Linie 7.

About

I grew up in Frechen, just outside Cologne, somewhere between the salad counter and the spinning kebab in my parents’ shop.

Today, I write about who gets seen in Germany – and who remains invisible. About Kurdish life, love against the odds and the people behind prison walls.

My most successful stories are the ones closest to home. Kurdish, female, feisty.

Along the way

Frechener GrillKebab shop worker
University of Duisburg-EssenB.A. Political Science
RWTH Aachen UniversityM.A. International Relations
Goethe-Institut Washington, D.C.Cultural programming
JournalismKölner Stadt-Anzeiger, VICE, WDR Cosmo, STRG_F, Belltower.News, DIE ZEIT and Tagesspiegel
Ferhat Unvar InitiativeEducation & Communications Specialist
University of Cologne & Université Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneLaw, pursuing the First State Examination in Law

Berivan Kilic in a red dress in front of stacked red drinks crates. — Photo: Victoria Jung

For freelance jobs, readings, talks and story tips. Based in North Rhine-Westphalia.

hi@hirtenmaedchen.de Instagram

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