Friday, July 27, 2007

'Fashion police' continues intimidating Iranian women

No, the Iranian regime is not getting any better.

The police has recently announced to tighten the control of 'immoral' clothing. What they do is standing on the street and reminding 'improperly' dressed women. Some of the conversations between the police and women are offered in this article here.


A female police officer talking to an Iranian woman (Turkish Daily News)

"I am wearing stockings but, sorry, they are too light. Sorry I will change them, definitely I will change them. Now can I go?", says a nervous girl as a reply after being warned. Yet, others are more audacious and speak out:

"Shame on you, look what you've done! Go fix the traffic situation, people are stuck in traffic for hours, go fix other real problems".

I completely agree.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Elections in Turkey

In a couple of hours, the Turks will start heading to the polls to elect a new parliament. As you might have heard by now, the election is considered crucial for the future of the country. In this election the Turks will decide whether the current AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will continue its rule as a single party government or not.

The AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) has become an issue in Turkey due to the Islamist background of its founders. The party leaders have described the AKP as a party of the center right, but the secularists remain skeptic about its aims. They believe that the AKP has a hidden agenda and simply uses democracy as a tool to achieve its ultimate goal: an Islamic state.

The main opponents of the AKP are the secularists of the CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People's Party), the party established by Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The CHP holds the label "leftist" but is not really leftist in its policies. I personally do not find the CHP really interesting. They are too rigid in their ideology and simply too nationalist.

Interesting, however, are two independent candidates. I'm talking about Baskın Oran, professor at the University of Ankara, and Ufuk Uras, former chairman of ÖDP (Özgürlük ve Dayanışma Partisi, Freedom and Solidarity Party) and professor at the University of Istanbul. These two men represent the small liberal leftist community in Turkey. I'm not sure whether they will be elected, but if they will be, I'm sure they will contribute a lot to Turkey. Pay attention to these two names!

A useful Q&A about the election is provided by Al Jazeera, for those who wish to get more background information.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Rodents bring Israelis and Jordanians together

Economical benefit remains one of the greatest motives for individuals to actually do something. In some cases, it even neglects political barriers!

Read this story of Israeli and Jordanian farmers sharing experiences and working together in their struggle against rodents.

Let us hope that one day they will also work together fighting prejudices and hate.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Babel

Banner update!

The banner you see now is a detail of Brueghel's "Little Tower of Babel" , painted in 1563.

Obviously much is to say about the story of the Tower of Babel, but I'm simply not in the mood to tell anything, sorry guys. I think I'm going to get a glass of scotch. Anyone care to join?

Monday, July 9, 2007

The Turkish-Egyptian fez issue

As a want to finish my thesis this month, I've been writing and reading a lot this week. I had never imagined that I could use some of that reading material for my blog - most of it is too serious too handle - but I've stumbled upon some really funny stories.

It appears that Turkey and Egypt were on the brink of a serious crisis for a fez - or tarboosh as it is called in Egypt - somewhere in the thirties. The fez is a conical red hat that was worn by men in most parts of the Middle East, until the first half of the 20th century.


The Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II (reign 1876-1909) wearing a fez


Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), the Turkish leader that established the Republic of Turkey and carried out a series of reforms in his efforts to modernize his country, prohibited the fez on the ground that it was a sign of backwardness or whatever. You might not believe it, but people were actually put in jail for wearing the fez. Such was the sensitivity of the Kemalists regarding a simple headgear.

Well, the postwar (referring here to World War I) Egyptian regime had no such problems with the fez - or tarboosh I must say - and kept the hats just as they were. In fact, it was part of the Egyptian national attire and was hence also worn by Egyptian diplomats abroad. So when the Egyptian diplomatic envoy to Turkey, Abdel Malek Hamza Bey, attended a 'Day of the Republic' celebration where Mustafa Kemal himself was present too, he had no idea that he was 'offending' the Ghazi (that's Mustafa Kemal's nickname in Turkey) by wearing his beloved tarboosh!

Upon seeing the tarboosh, the Turkish officials hurried to Hamza Bey with the request to put it off, but he refused and declared that it was an essential part of his national attire. Feeling insulted himself by the officials he promptly left the place.

When the reason for Hamza Bey's unexpected departure was made public, the Turkish and Egyptian press - the Daily Herald in London too by the way - took the issue to a another level by dealing with it as a matter of national dignity. While some argued that Egypt's dignity was violated and asked for an apology, others claimed that no such thing was the case and that Turkey would not need to apologize at all. At the end, the two parties managed to come to an agreement and the incident passed without serious consequences.

Some twenty years later, in 1952, the tarboosh was abolished in Egypt by the newly established republican regime - yes, yes also in the case of Egypt it was a republican regime! At the same time, all relations with Turkey were broken off.

I love the irony of it.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Chavez and Ahmadinejad

Just married! Hurrah!


The newly married couple posing for the cameras / Reuters



The first dance:


The happiness of Hugo and Mahmoud was visible throughout the wedding / Reuters