Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
my visit, every time I witnessed this ritual, people of ered to share their food.
At that restaurant, I said, “No, thanks,” but they set me up anyway—with i gs,
lentil soup, bread, baklava, and Coke. (I thought the Coke was a bit odd…
but they said it's not considered American anymore. Coke is truly global.)
Much as I enjoy these Ramadan experiences, my latest visit left me with
an uneasy awareness of how fundamentalism is creeping into the mainstream.
Mayors now play a part in organizing Ramadan festivities. During Ramadan,
no-name neighborhood mosques literally overl ow during prayer time. With
carpets unfurled on sidewalks, it's a struggle just walking down the street.
I got the unsettling feeling that the inconvenience to passing pedestrians
wasn't their concern…as if they felt everyone should be praying rather than
trying to get somewhere.
I don't want to overstate Turkey's move to the right, but keen and car-
ing secular observers see an ominous trend. I have friends in Turkey almost
distraught at their country's slide toward fundamentalism. To them, it's an
evolution that—like a rising tide—seems impossible to stop.
Imagine watching your country gradually slip into a theocracy: one
universal interpretation of scripture, prayer in school, religious dress codes,
women covering up and accepting a scripturally ordained subservient role
to men, judges chosen on the basis of the dominant religion, laws and text-
books being rewritten. When the separation of religion and state is violated,
a moralistic ruling class that believes they are right and others are wrong sets
about reshaping its society.
Seeing this struggle play out in Turkey—a land that i rst adopted a
modern, secular constitution only in 1924—is dramatic. I can feel the chill
sweep across a teahouse when a fundamentalist Muslim man walks by...fol-
lowed, a few steps behind, by his covered-up wife.
For a traveler, the move to the religious right is easiest to see in peoples'
clothes. As the father of a teenage girl who did her best to dress trendier
than her parents allowed, I am intrigued by teenage Muslim girls covering
up under scarves and, I imagine, duress. Sure, they're covered from head to
toe. But under their modest robe, you know that many wear chic clothes
and high heels.
h roughout Islam, scarves are widely used both as tools for modesty and as
fashion accessories. In a i ne silk shop, I asked a young woman to demonstrate
scarf-wrapping techniques. She happily showed of various demure styles.
I asked her to demonstrate how to turn one of her scarves into a conserva-
