Scott Atran’s memory of the late Levi-Strauss is published on the Huffington Post. For access click HERE.
Picture from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/lat-me-claude-le_ksk35nc20091103162332,0,7014382.photo
Picture courtesy of http://rlv.zcache.com/peace_in_turkey_tshirt-p235111791998401046adk5e_210.jpg
Turkey is coming out of its cocoon of isolationist politics of the recent past. Ending the World War I-induced paranoia and quiescence, the current Turkish government is assuming an unusual assertiveness in the future of the Middle East and the Caucuses that is bound to pay important dividends for all with a stake in these conflict-infested regions.
Recently, the government of Turkey and its counterparts in Syria and Iraq have signed into law agreements that will change the facade of the Middle East. The recent protocol signed between Turkey and Syria has capped the continually improving relations between the once-on-the-brink-of-war countries. To the appreciation of many, the protocol abolishes visa requirements.
Ertugrul Osman, heir to the defunct Ottoman throne, has died in Istanbul. Thousands were in attendance at his funeral. Read the CNN article by clicking HERE.
As we speak, many Turkish soldiers are fighting a heroic war against terrorists in North Iraq. They are triumphing in the war in the face of cold and knee-high snow. Some are falling, and their falling is breaking our hearts.
As I watch the funerals of the fallen soldiers, I am reminded again that injustice is very deeply ingrained in this society. As the clips keep playing, we see and hear more than the mourning of the families and children; we see poverty and neglect in these people who are proud to have raised and sent to the front a son to keep this country safe. We see people who are the backbone of this country; who have always been there to protect this country. We see the real face of this country. We see women in headscarves, we see barefoot Gunes’s (pictured below in her uncle’s arms at her father’s funeral). We see people who have nothing else but their lives to give for this country.
We never see in these clips wealthy people crying over the fallen body of their sons shipped from the front. You never see in these shots a parliamenter crying over the body of his/her son slain by cowards. You never see a celeb (no matter how spoiled) crying over the body of a son s/he raised with doting care.
We don’t want to see anyone crying over the body of their sons or daughters. We don’t want any mothers to go through that pain. But we want justice in this country, not the mere talk of it. We want equality, democracy, and hope which will come only and only if we all share the burden together.
*Pictured to the left is the turban (hijab) worn mostly by religious Turkish women.
Think of a country which boasts of democracy and claims to equal rights to all of its citizens. Then think of a number of young women who have fulfilled all requirements to attend higher education programs for which they highly qualify but are not allowed to attend because they cover their heads for their religious beliefs.
Think a little more about these young women: Who are they? Where are they from? A little background check gives you all the answers and more. They are the backbone of this country; they are the children of people who work more for this country than those who deny them entry into colleges they deserve to attend; they have brothers and fathers who have served in the army and even been killed in battles against the PKK terrorist group; they grew up in poverty in the far reaches of rural of Anatolia deprived of the resources; their families toil in the heat of the summer and cold of winter to pay their taxes.
The secular elite that is guarding the gates to schools are doing what they believe will save their future.
Although just a little outdated, the link below will take you to the talks of Richard Rothstein, an authority on matters of education that are persistent topics of our everyday conversations on equality in education for all demographic groups and the accountability requirements of the NCLB.
Click here to read about and watch the videos of these talks.
Recently I have started following the Turkish media by watching news videos and reading reports online.
On many occasions, I was disgusted to see some celebrities sprinkle English words into their speech. These pathetic people (undeserving of their priviledged position in society) must be oblivious to the fact that the majority in Turkey does not speak English and would not have a clue of what they are talking about. The last straw came with Bulent Ersoy, who used the word “excuse” instead of its Turkish equivalent “af” while describing the whole mess about her husband’s betrayal–like anyone cares about her marriage and her husband’s affair…
Although already known to all that she speaks with no right mind, she does not realize that she is doing this at the expense of alienating the very people who have made her famous. More troubling is the public’s acquiescence to her and others who have made it a habit to denigrate the Turkish language by speaking foreign words to unsuspecting viewers.
Watch a nice spoof.
These are not Young Turks; they are Young Civilians : like-minded people for the neglected majority.
…talk about the social ills of my country and how the minority elite is trying to safeguard their privileged position in the society by invoking the rubber-stamped secularist and democratic legacy and of course the wrath of the army. They are doing this at the expense of the oppressed, poor, disadvantaged, and uneducated (purposely kept uneducated I think) majority who live in the mountains, and who without letup and complaint toil to pay taxes and unaware that their taxes will end up paying to sustain the wealth and privilege of the elite. I am really bottled up about this and am getting more political every day…
We need activists to reveal, interrupt the oppressive practices and heighten the awareness of the oppressed to help liberate them.
Picture courtesy of http://www.petersommer.com/galleryimages/culture/Leading-Donkey-Photo-Turkey.jpg
This post is a response to Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys by Nancy Lopez. I personalized the issues she cites in that book of racialized and gendered lived exerperiences of second generation immigrant youth.
The gendering practice that was eloquently reported by Lopez is not unique. What makes this study compelling to read are the political overtones mixed with racial practices that are observed at the micro level of social interactions and at the macro level of institutional practices. Whenever and wherever power is contested, there will be a struggle between factions of people divided along power lines. Race in this country is a reality that is rooted in the history and struggle of people of color who were involuntarily displaced from their native homes. Gender in another country where power is given to one gender, e.g., men, is a more defining nature of oppression.
Like many Muslim countries, Turkey is a place where women are subordinated to men and suffer from their subjugated location in the unrelenting social structure. They grow up into their predetermined locations through entrenched practices that gender them to obey a paternalistic man, father, brother, who knows what is best for them. I have been troubled with power and gender inequality in my own family long before I read this book. However, the stories of the second generation youth in Lopez’s book reminded me of the gendering that women in my family are subjected to. I will talk about only one aspect of gendering, although I am aware that there are countless venues where their gender is a marker for stunting what Paulo Freire calls “untested feasibility” in life, or opportunities the oppressed would have attempted if they were not oppressed.
I was born in the remote regions of central Turkey which was held captive by the conservative traditions, which feed the dark practice of denying schooling to girls. Girls would be better off staying illiterate and in the captivity of illiterate villages. Their work is needed on the fields to tend to the harvest, to herd the livestock, and to wait for a husband who will be chosen for her. When they get married, they usually end up in an other village toiling in the heat of the summer and wading through the knee-high snow in the winter. This is the story of women who would have had different lives if they were born in a Western country. A life that abounds with opportunities and free will to unleash the potential they have. One of them is my mother. I love her dearly, but feel sorry for her and her wasted life in this unequal world where she was brought down to an object, was used in the fields, and was taught to fear change and possibility. Her location in life shares the same oppression that second generation youth of Caribbean descent experience in Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys. I was hopeful as least for my sisters who wanted to continue studying and to break out of this vicious cycle. It was only a hope and a dream that may come true in a more “democratic, polite, and humane” future, as Freire would say. They were too denied further education, and automatically underpowered.
Oppression surfaced again in my father’s relentless insistence and success in getting aborted my unborn sibling. My mother’s teary and sullen face during the turmoil was her only struggle against the oppressive decree. In the end it did not matter if she wanted that baby or how much she fought for it because the decision was already made by her man, who never fathomed her pain, and never will. This is where the oppression is starkly displayed: incognizance of the men about the oppression they exert on women.
There are women in Turkey who are not as oppressed as those in my family, but I know it is widespread in most Turkish families. In a patriarchal society, where men are accorded more power, Turkish women are reeling from oppression that portrays men as the agent. Macro level structural practices are embedded in the daily interactions between men and women, which dictate an order of world in which women are subjugated to the dominant gender. Their location in life as secondary and subservient is reinforced and solidified daily; any diversion is met with punishment that only spells problem for them. As Freire and Lopez would agree, men should not be blamed for the oppression as their overt actions might readily suggest, for they are also under oppression, of macro level structures.
