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Fréderike Geerdink
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Religious attitudes?
/0 Comments/in Other /by fgeerdinkNow, 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 there’s a whole lot of ‘buts’. There was another survey on the same question which concludes that the number of women wearing a scarf has gone down from 64 percent to 61, the percentage of those wearing a ‘turban’ rising to 6 instead of 16 percent. Both surveys were done in September, but the first has only now been published. The survey results were published by two different newspapers, both belonging to the same media conglomerate, Dogan Media Group. It is now said that the surveys are used to support or oppose government policies. The ‘headscarfissue’ is perfect for manipulation. The governing party is the AK Party, whose leaders in the past were spokesmen for banned Islamic parties. The AK Party says it’s not Islamic, but opponents fear that they will not respect Turkey’s secularism and that they stir up conservative Islamic tendencies in society. Now, if you want to oppose the government, you publish the figures that show an increase in (religious) headscarves – and some say Dogan had reason this week to try to influence politics and public opinion (over some financial transaction between media interests that is too complicated to explain here). On the other hand, if you want to support the government and calm public opinion, you publish the less alarming survey, as a Dogan newspaper did in September after Abdullah Gül (AK Party) was elected president.
Is seems far-fetched, but it’s well known that many Turkish newspapers are not very independent, so I would not be surprised if this is actually what happened. What bothers me though, is that the choices women make are used to manipulate public opinion. What makes me laugh ironically is that the surveys are presented as investigations of the ‘religious attitudes of women’. Such an interesting issue reduced to whether or not you wear a headscarf, and if so, what sort of scarf. The whole exercise says nothing about the attitudes of women and everything about the attitudes of businessmen and politicians.
The Turkish flag, symbol of unity and discord
/0 Comments/in Other /by fgeerdinkThe fight against the PKK is a boost for the Turkish flag industry. Flags are everywhere: they hang outside houses, stick to car windows or hang giant-sized on public buildings. “Everybody who waves the flag is convinced that he is defending the only true Turkish values.”
The Turkish national flag is constantly visible. In enormous sizes on public buildings, languidly flying on central Taksim Square and next to Topkapi palace, and recently more often in a smaller version from the windows of houses. On the street there’s always a flag-vendor nearby, and demonstrators, for whatever purpose, carry every size of flag with them in huge quantities. Flag producer Günay Bayrak, the biggest in the country, couldn’t meet the demand this year. “It was not possible to increase production by more than a hundred percent”, says director Önder Günay.
Opposing opinions
What is remarkable is that the Turkish flag is used to emphasize varied and sometimes opposing opinions. In recent months more and more people have been demonstrating to promote a cross border operation of the Turkish army into northern Iraq, and funerals of soldiers are often a platform to propagate this opinion. But recently in Istanbul a contra demonstration was also festooned with flags. “Both groups”, says Aruş Yumul, sociology professor at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, “feel that Turkish values are under threat and defend their vision of the country with the flag.” Advocates of a cross-border operation think it necessary for the defense of national borders deemed to be under threat, while opponents believe that military action will further alienate different groups in Turkish society and will therefore corrode the unity of the country.
The flag, says Aruş Yumul, represents all the values of the country and you can choose which values are most important for you. “The flag symbolizes the state, but of course people are part of that state so they feel they are the representatives of the state. They appropriate the flag and give it their own personal meaning.”
Especially over the last year showing the flag has become endemic. Before the parliamentary elections last summer both secularists and followers of the Islamic party waved the flag, now it’s the advocates and opponents of an attack on the PKK in Iraq who make themselves heard, and besides that there are national holidays and now and then a football party. “The flag has become a symbol of both the secular order and the Turkish religious identity, and of respect for the country’s borders. Everybody who waves the flag is convinced that he is defending the only true Turkish values”, Yumul says. You could saythat waving the flag now seems to symbolize the divisions in the country rather than its unity.
Atatürk
In the centre of Üsküdar, an area of Istanbul on the Asian side, Gülsen Çitak buys a rather huge flag with a portrait of Atatürk on it. She pays fifteen liras, which is about eight euros. Why is she buying it? “Mainly for the martyrs”, she says, referring to the almost daily Turkish casualties in the fight against the PKK. That’s also the reason why thousands of people nationwide hang a flag out of their window. Why Gülsen, a woman in her fifties, chose a flag with Atatürk on it, is hard for her to put into words, but flag vendor Ahmet Çorakçi is not surprised: “Women more often buy a flag with Atatürk on it. He gave women rights and therefore he is especially important to them.” For Ahmet and his sales assistant Ismail business is good. “These last few months, sales have gone up because of PKK violence”, says Ismail. “But to be honest, I would prefer the terrorism to stop and business to be worse.”
In the factory of Günay Bayrak, where Ahmet and Ismail also get their flags from, metres of flag are cut into the right size at a dazzling pace. Close-by, groups of women at sewing machines stitch a white piping onto the flags, so that later on a stick can be inserted, either a flexible stick with car-clip, or a rope with suction cups. Although flags of many other countries as well as company flags are also printed, the production of the red-white Turkish flag runs at especially high speed. How many of those will be produced by Günay Bayrak this year, owner Önder Günay doesn’t know. He doesn’t count per piece: “This year, we will produce around 2.5 million metres of flags.”
Published in daily newspaper ‘De Pers’, december 5 2007
(photo by myself)
Short of money
/0 Comments/in Other /by fgeerdinkShe earns 500 liras per month, working six days a week, eight to twelve hours a day. Her rent is 300 liras, bills around 40 liras, transport to and from work about 75 liras. It’s obvious: she is seriously short of money. Now, I remember times when I too was seriously short of money. But that was as a student, spending money on the wrong things and at a time of life when I didn’t mind eating pancakes for a few days and cadging cigarettes from other people. Half a year after finishing my studies, I found my first job, earned a decent salary and could support myself. I was financially independent at 23. With G. – as with many Turks in the twenty-something or thirty-something age group – it’s different: she finished university six years ago, she speaks almost perfect English, and she is 31 years old. She is so sick of not being able to support herself. But finding a better-paid job is not easy. So for now, all she can do is knock on her parents’ door. They give her some extra money. That makes life easier, but also more difficult. Because G. needs their money, she has to put up with their pressure too. Pressure to come ‘home’ again and leave Istanbul. Pressure to find a good husband and become a mother. Pressure to get a haircut, buy some nicer clothes, visit the family more often. I can imagine why she’s almost desperate to find a better job. Desperate to make her favourite daydream come true: to finally tell her parents to stop interfering and let her live her own life.