I recently read that the amount of ‘Islamic hotels’ is increasing in Turkey. No alcohol is served there and there are separate swimming pools for men and women. I don’t really have an opinion about that. I think there’s apparently a market for this sort of hotel, and if there are people who want to enjoy their holidays …
Learn to write and win a fridge
That’s the basic theme of a campaign by the ministry of education to fight illiteracy. Especially for women, of course. Turkey has a population of around 70 million and about 5 million of them are illiterate. In order to make more women in particular attend literacy classes, the ministry has come up with a plan in cooperation with a bank: …
Turkish women need to give birth to at least three children. So says Prime Minister Erdogan. He said it once, nicely planned to coincide with International Womens’ Day, and that turned out not to be a slip of the tongue because he repeated his advice. Three children, because that’s the only way to maintain Turkish population levels. I have …
At their protest they carry a portrait of Safiye Ayla. She passed away ten years ago, ninety years old, but in her young years she was Atatürks favorite singer. She became successful also because of her performances on TRT, the Turkish state broadcaster. The portrait says everything about the unrest that has built up at TRT and …
I’m getting ready for the most exciting International Women’s Day for years, or actually, in my life. I thought I would be reporting on some demonstration somewhere, but over the last few weeks, this plan has changed. At the request of Press Now, an organization that promotes an independent press in different countries, I will give a three day journalism …
When you interview a woman with a headscarf, as I noticed these last few days, make sure your translator uses the right Turkish word for ‘headscarf’. There are two, namely ‘başörtüsü’ and ‘turban’. The latter is not appreciated by headscarved women. It’s denigrating, has it’s origin in Arabic (and indeed, the word is not in my Turkish dictionary) and …
This afternoon I was at the Istanbul office of the governing AK Party. I expected to see groups of people around televisions, watching the voting in parliament today on ‘the headscarf issue’. Today was the first round of voting on a proposal to change the constitution so that women with a scarf can no longer be denied access to university. …
“We stay on the street, with our purple needle!” On first encounter, it’s a somewhat weird slogan that is resounding through Istanbul’s biggest shopping street, Istiklal Caddesi, every Friday night. The purple needle (‘mor iğne’ in Turkish), explains Tuğba Tekerek of the action group Mor Iğne, has for years been a symbol used by the Turkish women’s movement against sexual …
We have to educate women as little as possible, he said. His friend agreed, and added that women should not only have no education, they also shouldn’t work or leave their village too much. Because once you educate women and once they start earning an income, it will be a threat to marriage. Now, these two guys were, for example, …
Now, is the number of women wearing a headscarf rising or not? The conclusion of a survey seems to be a clear “yes”. In short, 69 percent of women cover their heads, against 64 percent in 2003. Of these women, 16 percent wear a ‘turban’ (a ‘religious scarf’ as apposed to a ‘traditional’ one), against 3.5 percent four years ago.
But …
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