...While the visible part of Turkish gender iceberg is still ‘covered with a veil’ by Western media, the much larger, unseen part of the actual situation remains under water, hidden and unpublicized. It is unbelievably mesmerizing, trying to juxtapose every woman that you meet in Turkey. Jülide, our tour guide was devout believer in Atatürk and Republican values, drinking raki and at the same time fasting for Ramadan - yet she was not an activist. Nazife Şişman, was very sceptic of Atatürk’s legacy, probably never tasted any alcohol in her lifetime, yet she believed in some fundamental rights of woman and she was an activist, being referred as a feminist in Islamic circles and as an islamist in secular circles. Hale, Sabanci student, was quite liberal in her views and at the same time, one of the few people, who was not ‘a fan’, nor 'a sceptic' of Atatürk, yet she considered any sort of activism, including feminism being useless. This whole range of attitudes defines the current snapshot of the whole Turkish society: diverse, yet very disconnected at the same time...
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