Travel Reference
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Later that day, I dropped by Istanbul's Eyüp Sultan Mosque, where all of the women
wore their scarves with that forehead fold. Famous in Istanbul as the mosque attracting
the most conservative worshippers, even its state-employed female security guards were
wearing strict, religious headscarves. To my secular Turkish friend, it was striking—even
disturbing—that state employees would be seen in this garb.
The courtyard outside the mosque was filled with a kind of religious trade fair. Stalls
offering free food, literature, and computer programs (with a Mavis Beacon-type prayer
guide) stood side by side. Using incentives to target poor and less-educated Turks, it re-
minded me of the old-school strategy of Christian missionaries. The propaganda seemed
mostly directed at women. My friend believes that women, even more than men, are
pulling secular Muslim societies like Turkey to the right.
