Ode to Dicle Bode | The woman, a powerful being

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Dear Dicle,

We saw you, we heard you and you inspired us to write this letter for you.

Even at a young age you noticed your aptitude for music. Your entire childhood you practiced this passionately. You are an ambitious woman and you also showed this through the choice in your further education. After attending both the Conservatory and the Herman Brood academy, you plunged fully into the world of music. You are a woman who takes risks and created great opportunities for yourself because of this trait. However, you did notice that life as a woman in the music world can be lonely. You realized that other women also struggle with this and decided to start a school where you organize writing camps, retreats and much more. In doing so, women get the chance to work together and in this way you contribute to reducing the gender gap. Over the years, you've created a positive bubble around yourself and detached yourself from the male-dominated world you first found yourself in.

You decided to do something else besides music. In addition, you converted to Islam last year. You created your “Pilates for her,” a pink, hijab-friendly pilates studio for women. In doing so, you combined your passion for sports and your faith, and the demand for gyms for hijabis. 

While the Netherlands is portrayed as a progressive country, to this day women still experience many social problems such as inequality, discrimination and intersectionality. You have established a place where women can take a break from these societal judgments. Not only have you taken into account women in general, but this place also provides an opportunity for women who are at the crossroads of being both women and Muslims where they can also exercise without the hijab. You established this place in a special neighborhood: De Pijp. Through this you want to make sure that girls and women can talk to each other. They discover that they are actually all alike, or conversely can see that hijabis also play sports and can also get a coffee or matcha just like everyone else. This gives us the space to break down a cultural barrier.

Building your own businesses was not without trial and error; you had to do this yourself. This comes with ignorance and stress. With time you have learned to take better care of yourself and make time for yourself. In this way you have built a fine balance for yourself. Hopefully you will be able to maintain this for many years to come. Your creativity and perseverance inspire us to find our own drive and through you we realize that we don't need anyone to achieve beautiful things ourselves. 

We like to close with some words that you yourself gave us: woman is a powerful being. We have a strong intuition and caring nature, it is precisely with this feminine energy that we can change the world for each other. Listen to your mother feeling.