Turkey's Culture of Misogyny

Luxor has both Christian and Moslem communities and the politics of the Middle East are equally diverse. Air your views on the situation.

Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

Post Reply
LovelyLadyLux
Egyptian Pharaoh
Egyptian Pharaoh
Posts: 3253
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2009 2:27 am
Has thanked: 559 times
Been thanked: 1591 times
Canada

Turkey's Culture of Misogyny

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Found this to be an interesting article as it relates to the status of women in Islam:

Turkey's Culture of Misogyny

by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
February 24, 2015

http://www.meforum.org/5055/turkey-culture-of-misogyny

Originally published under the title, "Turkey's Culture of Horror."

Ozgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old female student living in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, went missing on February 11. The next day, gendarmerie forces stopped a suspicious minibus and discovered bloodstains and a hat in the vehicle. The day after that, Aslan's burned body was discovered in a nearby riverbed. Her friends were able to identify her only from the remains of her clothes.

Turks were in shock after the story hit newspaper headlines with every detail. How could one of them commit such a monstrous act? Tens of thousands of them took to the streets to protest. Turkish women took to social media; Twitter campaigns were launched. In parliament, politicians made big speeches and vowed to stop violence against women.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently angered feminists by proclaiming, 'in Islam women are entrusted to men.'

Condolences after condolences came, including a courtesy visit to Aslan's family home by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two daughters. It was as if all Turks were united against a foreign enemy. In reality, the enemy was their own culture.

In 2010, [then] Prime Minister Erdogan's wife, Emine Erdogan, told an audience of dignitaries in Brussels: "In our culture and civilization, which has a great historical background, family and motherhood are sacred."

Mrs. Erdogan, whose family is from Siirt in eastern Turkey, made that speech only days after Turkey had been shaken by another horror story: serial rapes in Siirt, including cases of adults raping minors and minors raping toddlers, and killing one. The mayor of Siirt said: "This is a small town and almost everyone is related to everyone. We have closed the case after consultations with the governor, the police and the prosecutor."

The problem is about the conservative culture in which the Turks take much pride. Child brides and buying brides (mostly in return for gold or cattle), are fine. Killing your own daughter because she was raped is from a tradition to protect family honor. Killing your own daughter because she fell in love with a boy is also normal. Covering up such horrible crimes is fine, too. But a boy putting on an earring or sporting a tattoo would be unacceptable.

The 78-year-old Islamist columnist Huseyin Uzmez avoided jail time for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

In 2009, the 78-year-old Huseyin Uzmez, an Islamist columnist, was convicted and imprisoned on charges of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, but was released from prison after a court suspended his 13-year sentence. After his release, Uzmez defended the Islamic rules that he said permit girls to wed under the legal age of 16.

In a 2013 report, BBC mentioned that between 2002 and 2009, murders of women in Turkey had risen by 1,400%.

Last year, Kader Erten, a girl who had been forced to marry at the age of 12, and had given birth to two children, was found dead of gunshot wounds in unclear circumstances. Aysenur Islam, Minister for Family and Social Policy, said, upon Kader's death, that "most underage marriages were 'innocently-motivated.'"

In October 2014, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2014 ranked Turkey at 125th out of 142 countries -- compared to 120th out of 136 countries in 2013. According to the WEF's report, Turkey is among the lowest ranked of the 40 countries in the upper-middle income group (and holds the lowest spot in the Europe and Central Asia region).


Former President Abdullah Gul reportedly married his wife in 1980, when she was 15 and he was 30.

More recently, in January 2015, Ipsos KMG Research and Consultancy Company released the findings of its survey, "Guide to Understanding Turkey." The research, based on interviews with nearly 16,000 people, found that 20% of Turkish men and 18% of Turkish women think that "women can be slapped if necessary."

Apparently, Turks have high-profile precedents in conservative Muslim thinking, to teach them what is permitted and what is not. In an angry speech, ironically mourning Aslan, the 20-year-old girl who was murdered on February 11, Erdogan addressed Turkey's feminists: "What have you to do with our religion, our civilization?" Erdogan was angry because feminists had objected to his earlier remark that "in Islam women are entrusted to men." We are not entrusted to anyone, they protested.

All that is normal. Former President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan's closest political ally (together they founded Turkey's ruling party), set one precedent. The official web page for Gul's wife described the first lady so: "Hayrunnisa Gul believes that women have an important role in shaping the family, and thus, society; and she supports activities carried out to strengthen women and family." According to the web page, Madame Gul married President Gul in 1980 -- when she was 15 and he was 30.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.


User avatar
Who2
Egyptian God
Egyptian God
Posts: 7912
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: Laandaan
Has thanked: 1114 times
Been thanked: 3214 times
Gender:
United Kingdom

Re: Turkey's Culture of Misogyny

Post by Who2 »


"If an artist pushes hard enough takes enough of the right drugs eventually he breaks boundary's beyond his understanding, this is a classic of that ethos of rock & rock, this is a pastiche of the original, but it's out there!….. :cool:
Ps: if you don't get the connection you are already lost……...
"The Salvation of Mankind lies in making everything the responsibility of All"
Sophocles.
User avatar
Bullet Magnet
Royal V.I.P
Royal V.I.P
Posts: 2530
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:38 am
Location: Le Manège Enchanté
Has thanked: 5362 times
Been thanked: 1475 times
Contact:

Re: Turkey's Culture of Misogyny

Post by Bullet Magnet »

Me and my Missus had a wonderful time in Turkey, :up
Not a misogynistic Muslim in sight either. weird or what ? :cg

Although, the biggest surprise was seeing my maternal Grandmother out there.. I wondered what had happened to her.. :up
There's a time for everyone, if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post
  • Turkey and EU
    by Major Thom » » in Just 4 Fun
    11 Replies
    2252 Views
    Last post by Major Thom
  • The Turkey Trust
    by Who2 » » in Hobbies And Pastimes
    7 Replies
    3411 Views
    Last post by HEPZIBAH
  • Talking Turkey
    by HEPZIBAH » » in Literary Corner
    6 Replies
    1297 Views
    Last post by timetraveller
  • Turkey To Take Over Egypt.
    by Hafiz » » in News and Sport
    4 Replies
    554 Views
    Last post by Hafiz