Another legal victory for parents who don’t want their kid to attend compulsory religious classes: an Istanbul court ruled that a child of atheist parents can skip the class. It’s not the first time. In 2007 the European Court for Human Rights ruled that a child with Alevi parents, (Alevism is an Islamic sect), cannot be obliged to …
It was quiet in Havana, early Friday evening. The afternoon quests had gone, the staff were eating their dinner and getting ready for the night. In a few hours the tourists would come in – young men, but mainly young women.
I couldn’t stay to see it: I had to catch a night bus that would take me away again from …
Stone throwers, pick-pockets, murderers
Whatever got into MHP leader Bahceli is a mystery to me, but he actually pleaded for an amnesty for all 5,000 kids in prison. Even more surprising: even the stone throwing kids from the southeast of Turkey should be included in the amnesty arrangement, he said. Why is that surprising? The MHP is a very nationalistic party, and usually they …
So bayram, as they call the holidays here, is over. Three days of eating, kissing hands and visits to family and friends, people seem to love it but I’m happy I’m not really part of it. The children are rather generous with kissing the hands of their parents, aunts and uncles, adult brothers and sisters, and, well, everybody who has …
No change in the law was needed for quite a big change that was made in Turkey’s education system: the YÖK (Higher Education Board) decided that graduates from normal high schools and vocational high schools have the same chance of entering a university based on their scores in the ÖSS (on which I wrote a blog recently). Previously, …
This week the newspapers are full of young guys, and now and then a young girl, with their hands up in the sky: they got good results in their ÖSS. That’s an exam at the end of the school year, which determines whether you are smart enough for university and, if so, for which university. The guys with their hands …
In the morning, she prepares breakfast for the family. Then she takes the young children to school. After that she cleans up the breakfast table, starts cleaning the house and when that’s finished, she knits for a while, till it’s time to start making dinner. Just a small glimpse into the life of a so called ‘ev kizi’, a house …
Picture this: A school in Kayseri, a vibrant city in the heart of Turkey. Not a big school, only 450 students. Girls only, aged between let’s say 13 and 17. And then picture me coming in with Allard, a Dutch photographer I sometimes work with. At first the girls are shy; when we try to get the ones I interview …
Doctors warn against ‘relax pills for students’, as they might do more harm than good. Newspapers have been publishing sample exams for weeks. Private schools drill their students for the last time. What’s going on? Tomorrow the university entrance exams take place. About one and a half million students compete for one of the approximately 200 thousand places at universities …
Some time ago, I interviewed a political scientist. The interview was not about the government, but of course we had to discuss the policies of the ruling AK Party, which is accused of trying to Islamize Turkey and undermine secularism. He said people had no reason to be afraid of any Islamic agenda in the AKP. In fact, …
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