Kamil Pasha

The sign says “Education with Headscarf”. The woman in front says, “Don’t be in such a rush, girl. I’ll open the door and then it’ll be your turn.”

To be! […]

Tags: Culture, Headscarf Debate, Politics, Religion, Women by Jenny White
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In spring 2007 before the national elections, a Turkish NGO called KA-DER started a highly visible and successful ad campaign to encourage more women to run for elected office and people to vote for women. The ads showed famous Turkish women wearing mustaches and asked, “Do you have to be a man to enter parliament?” […]

Tags: Culture, Politics, Women by Jenny White
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The human rights lawyer, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who is representing three Christians tortured and murdered in the eastern province of Malatya last year has asked for police protection after being subjected to threats and intimidation. The authorities, however, are dragging their heels on granting him protection despite urgent appeals by Amnesty International. At least […]

Tags: Deep state/Ergenekon, Kurds, Nationalism, Politics, Rights by Jenny White
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As I walk through my neighborhood just after dark on a wintry night, I glimpse snapshots of people’s lives through lit windows. A young woman with long black hair tied in a pony tail washes lettuce at a kitchen sink. In a tiny frame shop, a man with stubble on his chin sits at a […]

Tags: Culture, Istanbul by Jenny White
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image from Today’s Zaman
Out of some 3,225 mayors voted in during Turkish local elections in 2004, only 18 are women. Turkey has the highest rate of female unemployment among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Until 2002, Turkey’s civil code defined the man as the head of the household. These and the […]

Tags: Culture, Politics, Rights, Women by Jenny White
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Listen to an abdridged podcast of my conversation with Milt Rosenberg on Chicago’s WGN Extension 720 radio show. The hour-long interview has been cut in length on this podcast, so discussion of The Abyssinian Proof is somewhat truncated in favor of a more general discussion of Turkish society and politics at the end of the […]

Tags: Culture, Fiction, Nationalism, Politics by Jenny White
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Good New York Times article today by Sabrina Tavernise about the tensions in Turkey — beneath Muslim/secular divisions are social class prejudices. (Click here)

Tags: Culture, Headscarf Debate, Politics, Religion, Rights, Women by Jenny White
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I returned to Istanbul this afternoon, arriving after a snowstorm. My little street hadn’t been cleared, so the cabbie had to help me haul luggage on foot for the last block. But the real shock came when I entered my quaint old Ottoman wooden house. It was so cold I could barely remain upright. (Admittedly, […]

Tags: Culture, Fiction, Istanbul by Jenny White
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Last year I was privileged to see a performance of “The Veiled Monologues” by a Dutch Turkish theater group. It played to a packed house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, almost all women, many Muslim or from Muslim countries. It was daring, outrageous, moving, unpredictable, subtle, and unflinchingly honest about ALL the different ways of being a […]

Tags: Culture, Religion, Women by Jenny White
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One can see this video as an unusual, feisty view of the headscarf debate, although set within the larger context of mutual hatred and suspicion that largely defines relations between the West and the Muslim world. An in-your-face music video explores the issues on YouTube.
Stopping the Clash of Civiliations (click here to watch).
The upshot […]

Tags: Culture, Headscarf Debate, Politics, Religion, Women by Jenny White
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