Playboy Germany has a controversial Playmate gracing its May cover. Not only is the model Turkish, she is also Muslim, and argues that her decision to pose naked is an act of liberation.

Sila Sahin, who is a star in the German soap opera Good Time, Bad Times, told Playboy, "With these images I want to show young Turkish women that it is okay to live the way they are, that it is not cheap to show skin, that you should pursue your goals instead of bowing down to others."

"I did it because I wanted to be free at last," the Daily Mail reported her as saying. "These photographs are a liberation from the restrictions of my childhood."

The 25-year-old has reportedly been ostracised by members of her family for her decision, and according to reports has been the victim of a hate campaign by religious extremists, who have slated her decision to pose naked.

Daily Beast writer and Muslim women's rights activist Asra Nomani said in a post this week that while she didn't necessarily condone pornography, she could understand Sahin's extreme reaction.

While the Islamic law of awrah, which refers to those parts of the male and female body that can and can't be shown publically, is addressed to both men and women, it is this law that many men use to subordinate women, Nomani explained.

Nomani went on to say that Sahin's barely there photographs could mark the beginning of a shift in Islam for Muslim women the world over to redefine the concept of awrah for themselves.

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