The Cem and the Semah

In December 2014 the European Court of Human Rights held that denying a cemevi the free electricity given to places of worship was religious discrimination by Turkey.

Cumhuriyetçi Eğitim ve Kültür Merkezi Vakfı v. Turkey, ECtHR judgment of 2 December 2014, as reported by Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK (20 June 2017)

The Alevi cem, a rite led by a hereditary dede, with the semah danced by men and women together.

Sources2 sources

Scholarship

Frank Cranmer, 'Discrimination against Alevis – just satisfaction', Law & Religion UK, 20 June 2017, 2017Cumhuriyetçi Eğitim ve Kültür Merkezi Vakfı v. Turkey: on 2 December 2014 the ECtHR held that Turkey's exemption of places of worship from electricity bills, refused to cemevis, discriminated on grounds of religion
In its principal judgment of 2 December 2014, the Court held

The tradition itself

Türkiye, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (nomination), 'Semah, Alevi-Bektaşi ritual', UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2010, inscribed 2010 (5.COM)Semah as one of the twelve services of the cem, danced by men and women side by side, founded on the concept of unity with God
people come from God and return to God