In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Link: ‘Religious Authority Warns Women against Perfume, Flirtation’
Video: Matt Lauer interviews Istanbul expat women
Background: Recent religion-related developments in Turkey
Historical Context: Secularism in Turkey
Opinion & Analysis: Religion indelible part of Turkish culture
Reference: Turkey, Islam
Related Topic: ‘“Grope Patrol” in Boston Curbs Sexual Harassment on the Subway’
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A woman holds a poster showing a woman wearing a niqab with words that mean "about
a shameful picture" during a demonstration in Ankara, Turkey (AP).
a shameful picture" during a demonstration in Ankara, Turkey (AP).
Turkey’s Religious Directorate Blames Women, Perfume for Incurring Lust
by
Anne Szustek
The Diyanet, Turkey’s directorate for religious affairs, published an article on its Web site suggesting that women wearing perfume and working in mixed-sex offices is “immoral behavior.”
30-Second Summary
The country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been lauded by some for instituting reforms to help bring the country in line with the rest of Europe after decades of statist economic intervention.
But it has also implemented policies construed by some as Islamist. Alcohol has been banned intermittently and pork producers are being shut out of business. Earlier this year, the government overturned a ban on Islamic headscarves for public university students. Government secularists saw this as the last straw, and filed a motion to oust the AKP for contravening the country’s policy of secularism.
So when the Diyanet, the modern incarnation of an Ottoman Empire post that governs religion in the country, published an article on its Web site arguing that women who wear perfume, make so much as eye contact with men outside their immediate family, or do not cloak their figures can blame only themselves for sexual harassment, it sparked further fears of religiosity curbing the country’s Mediterranean epicureanism.
Secular columnist Yusuf Kanli wrote, “Is this mentality different at all with that of the Taliban that placed Afghan women behind chadors?”
But attitudes like the Diyanet’s exist closer to home, as well. A male blogger wrote that women wearing “short skirts and plunging necklines” were only egging on New York subway catcallers.
But it has also implemented policies construed by some as Islamist. Alcohol has been banned intermittently and pork producers are being shut out of business. Earlier this year, the government overturned a ban on Islamic headscarves for public university students. Government secularists saw this as the last straw, and filed a motion to oust the AKP for contravening the country’s policy of secularism.
So when the Diyanet, the modern incarnation of an Ottoman Empire post that governs religion in the country, published an article on its Web site arguing that women who wear perfume, make so much as eye contact with men outside their immediate family, or do not cloak their figures can blame only themselves for sexual harassment, it sparked further fears of religiosity curbing the country’s Mediterranean epicureanism.
Secular columnist Yusuf Kanli wrote, “Is this mentality different at all with that of the Taliban that placed Afghan women behind chadors?”
But attitudes like the Diyanet’s exist closer to home, as well. A male blogger wrote that women wearing “short skirts and plunging necklines” were only egging on New York subway catcallers.
Headline Link: ‘Religious Authority Warns Women against Perfume, Flirtation’
The Diyanet’s article writes that “Women have to be more careful, since they have stimulants. The women communicating with strange men should speak in a manner that will not arouse suspicion in one’s heart.” It also says that women “should not show their adornments and figure and that they should cover in a fine manner.”
Source: Der Spiegel
Video: Matt Lauer interviews Istanbul expat women
As part of the “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” segment on the “Today Show,” Lauer interviewed Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gökmen, editors of the best-selling book about foreign women’s lives in Turkey, “Tales of the Expat Harem.” Gökmen responded to a question about Turkey’s current Islamist-leaning government: “The current administration has made some good progress in terms of bringing EU standardization to Turkish infrastructure. Yet in the commotion of all that, the country has been slow to respond to the creeping Islamism. It hasn’t affected us that much in life, but the fear that it is going to affect us has caused some activity to start.”
Source: MSNBC
Background: Recent religion-related developments in Turkey
The Diyanet, the governmental body charged with funding and running Turkey’s mosques and religious instruction, is having a group of professors at the University of Ankara make the 1,400-year-old texts of the Hadith—Islam’s second-most sacred text after the Quran—more palatable to modern Turkey.
Source: findingDulcinea
Turkey’s parliament in January approved a draft constitutional amendment to allow female university students to wear Islamic-style headscarves on campus. Secularists fear that this move was part of a campaign by the current Islamist-leaning government to weaken the separation of mosque and state.
Source: findingDulcinea
Famed for strong tobacco, Turkey nonetheless introduced in January one of the world’s strictest bans on public smoking. The government maintains the legislation is to promote health and bring the country in line with similar anti-smoking rules seen elsewhere in Europe. Critics say that an Islamist motivation, namely dissuading people from going to nightclubs and bars, lies behind the new law, however.
Source: findingDulcinea
As of April 10, Istanbul’s last pork butcher was down to his last month of stock. The country’s Islamist-leaning government has shut down all but two pork farms and taken away the licenses from slaughterhouses. The butcher, ethnic Greek Lazari Kozmaoglu, says, “I don’t know what I can do if they don’t give it to me; this business is my life.”
Source: Bloomberg.com
Deniz Som, a columnist for Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, led a “drink-in” in December 2006 in protest of an Istanbul muncipality’s ban on public consumption of alcohol. One passerby shouted “drunken bastards” at the 300-person crowd and punched Som in the arm.
Source: Ground Report
Historical Context: Secularism in Turkey
In 1923, amidst the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and World War I, military general turned national leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk sought to establish Turkey as a secular republic by founding the nation upon a number of Westernizing reforms. Religion was to be kept out of governmental institutions, except for one ministry dedicated to religion. A centralized education system akin to the one in France was put in place, and women were given equal rights under the law.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
Opinion & Analysis: Religion indelible part of Turkish culture
Söner Çagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, writes that the university class on Turkish secularism he was set to teach in September 2007 will become “a history class” if the legislative trends of the past five years are to continue. “Religion will assume a larger and larger place in the country's politics and society. Turkey will become a more Islamic society in its foreign-policy outlook and culture. … Headscarves, religious education and the rejection of alcohol will become more common,” Çagaptay writes.
Source: Washington Institute for Near East Policy
In March Turkey’s chief prosecutor filed an indictment against the AKP for “subverting secularism.” The Christian Science Monitor writes that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan needs to institute more democratic freedoms—such as guaranteeing women’s and religious minorities’ rights—rather than pushing through an Islamist-leaning agenda. “Turkey is struggling to find the right balance between its secular tradition and an increasingly devout Muslim population,” writes the magazine.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Turkish columnist Yusuf Kanli calls the Diyanet’s directives “a comedy.” He decries the prohibitions of deodorants and perfumes, especially for women. “Summer is setting in. … Already, in bigger cities of the country if one does not have any smelling problem it is fast becoming impossible for him/her to travel on municipal buses. … Alas, now our Religious Affairs Directorate is saying that using deodorants or perfumes with “charming odors” is indeed a sin!”
Source: Turkish Daily News
Reference: Turkey, Islam
The BBC has compiled a list of key facts about Turkey and an overview of the country’s recent history.
Source: The BBC
FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Islam provides an outline of the faith, including background links, sites to online interpretations of holy texts, directories to mosques and calculators for local prayer times.
Source: findingDulcinea
Related Topic: ‘“Grope Patrol” in Boston Curbs Sexual Harassment on the Subway’
Boston police have started an initiative to keep subway gropers in check: posters and undercover cops called the “grope patrol” are now fixtures on the “T.” Some believe these measures to be extreme. “Bare legs, short skirts and plunging necklines” may encourage harassers, noted one male blogger in response to an online survey conducted last summer by the city of New York.
Source: findingDulcinea
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