BRIGHTENING GLANCE
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  • SHOUTS: A Novel of Love and War
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  • On Sports
    • A SENSE OF WHERE YOU ARE by John McFee
    • Baseball poetry by Lynn Rigney Schott about her father
    • Brownsville Bum
    • Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu
    • Miracle of Coogan's Bluff
    • Muhammad Ali: "Eclipse of the Sonny"
    • The Four Horsemen
    • The Green Fields of the MInd
    • The Death of a Racehorse
  • TURKEY
    • HOW TO WRITE ABOUT FASCIST TURKEY...
    • BAD TURKISH MOON ARISING
    • Eavesdropping on the Planet (in particular on Turkey) (3/29/2014)
    • Seymour M. Hersh’in 4 Nisan 2014 tarihli “The Red Line and The Rat Line” isimli yazısının Türkçe Çevirisi
    • Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels (9 April 2014)
    • UNITED NATIONS AND NEW YORK TIMES CARPET BOMBED (20 September 2016)
    • THE FAKE MILITARY COUP
    • BLOOD MOON, BLOODY HANDS (15 April 2014)
    • SOMA
    • THE FATAL STATE OF LABOUR IN TURKEY (20 May 2014)
    • KILLER KOAL (14 May 2014)
    • CİHAN, TEK AT
    • CHEMICAL TAYYIP: SEYMOUR HERSH VIDEO INTERVIEW (9 April 2014)
    • A LESSON FROM NAZI GERMANY TO FASCIST TURKEY (29 March 2014)
    • TURKISH OFFICIALS PLAN FALSE-FLAG ATTACK TO CREATE PRETEXT FOR WAR WITH SYRIA (3/29/2014)
    • ANNE/MOM (MOTHERS OF THE MURDERED)
    • TODAY, ERDOĞAN SAID “GODDAMN THE GEZI PARK MOVEMENT" (26 March 2014)
    • ELECTION DAY: TURKEY’S RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH (25 March 2014)
    • HEY TWITS, THIS TWEET’S FOR YOU (21 March 2014)
    • PEA-BRAINS ON PARADE (17 March 2014)
    • RECEP DECEIT ERDOĞAN 15 March 2014
    • TAYYIP
    • NO JUSTICE FOR BERKIN ELVAN
    • Başbakan’a mektup! (Mustafa Mutlu) 13 Mart 2014
    • GİT LAN! 13 Mart 2014
    • HEY YOU! HEY ERDOĞAN! (11 March 2014)
    • HEY SEN! HEY ERDOĞAN! (11 Mart 2014)
    • TOILET TALK FROM A FEW FASCISTS
    • THE SICK JOKE (8 March 2014)
    • OPERATION BULB BUSTER: COMBAT OPERATION ORDER (28 February 2014)
    • ERDOĞAN’S DIRTY MONTAGE (26 February 2014)
    • TURKEY'S CRIME MINISTER (25 February 2014)
    • THE SEWER (24 February 2014)
    • Erdoğan’ın 20 yıllık çıkını (23 Şubat 2014)
    • FASCISTS, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU! (21 February 2014)
    • Bipartisan Letter to President Obama on Turkey
    • INSIDE THE TIGER (13 February 2014)
    • KAPLANIN İÇİNDE (13 February 2014)
    • SNOW JOB (11 February 2014)
    • RÜŞVET DİALOGLARI
    • TURKISH SWISS "CHEESE" AND OTHER CORRUPTIONS (7/02/14)
    • TAYYIP'S TRILLIONS (4 February 2014)
    • FIGHT TURKISH AND AMERICAN FASCISM
    • Turkey's Gold-Smuggling Ring (29 January 2014) BLOOMBERG
    • BAD TURKISH MOON RISING (29 January 2014)
    • TERRORIST TURKS, DOUBLE-FACED ARABS, MURDEROUS AMERICANS, HYPOCRITES EVERYWHERE, OPENING STATEMENT, GENEVA: Walid al-Moallem - SyriaN Foreign Minister (23 January 2014
    • RECEP TAYYİP ERDOĞAN BURNS HIS REICHSTAG (16 January 2014)
    • DEVLETTİ KAYBETTİK (15 Ocak 2014)
    • "Today, our nation is in crisis." Letter to President Gül (10 January 2014)
    • Gazi Recep’in İstiklal Mücadelesi... (Bekir Coşkun) (1/8/14)
    • LIARS (4 January 2014)
    • KİMDEN YANA OLMALI? (Türker Ertürk) 4 Ocak 2014
    • YÜCE ATATÜRK (8/12/2013)
    • TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS (25 December 2013)
    • THE FETO SHOW (22 December 2013)
    • Naci Eriş: A Hero For These Times (15 November 2013)
    • Hello America, Obama's Best Friend Has Done It Again (25 October 2013)
    • FINAL CURTAIN (16 November 2013)
    • DIVINE WRONGS (8 November 2013)
    • PIMP (14 November 2013)
    • VERY LITTLE WOMEN (1 November 2013)
    • THE FIRE THIS TIME (29 October 2013)
    • Our Invisible Revolution (Chris Hedges) 28 October 2013
    • NOWHERE MAN (27 October 2013)
    • KILIÇDAROĞLU THE COLLABORATOR: Shaking Hands With Darkness (8 October 2013)
    • HALK TV'DE YILIN RÖPORTAJI: ESAD'IN ERDOĞAN HAKKINDA HİÇ ANLATMADIKLARI (10/05/2013)
    • ERDOĞAN MEANS "CATASTROPHE" IN ANY LANGUAGE (4 October 2013)
    • IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, IN ANOTHER WORLD (A Gezi Symphony-Prelude) 01-10-2013
    • FOR GOD’S SAKE STOP SAYING “INSHALLAH” (28 September 2013)
    • Din Hanesini Sildirdi (Kimlik): "BAŞBAKAN MÜSLÜMANSA BEN DEĞİLİM" 21.09.2013
    • The Ergenekon Verdicts: Chronicle of an Injustice Foretold (Gareth Jenkins)
    • TURKEY’S POOR PLAYER (23 August 2013)
    • DEMOCRATIC DEMONS (17 August 2013)
    • HAPPY DAY (3 August 2013)
    • UNDER OCCUPATION: A MANIFESTO (11 August 2013)
    • LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (28 July 2013)
    • “DEAR ERDOĞAN”— Letters from the World (26 July 2013)
    • IN OUR STARS (12 July 2013)
    • MY APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE by Admiral Türker Ertürk (Ret.)
    • The American Ambassador (20 June 2013
    • TURKEY’S DEAD MAN TALKING (1 July 2013)
    • Alain Badiou--Türkiye: Gerçek Bir Tarihi İsyan Mı? (19 Haziran 2013)
    • Alain Badiou--Turkey: A Genuine Historical Riot? (19 June 2013)
    • ERDOĞAN ON THE HORNS (18 June 2013)
    • GASSING WHILE BEING GASSED--A CONVERSATION
    • Ataturk Youth Earthquake Not A Turkish Spring (14 June 2013)
    • If They Are Not Turkish, What Are They (11 June 2013)
    • Fighting Words (11 June 2013)
    • A Montage: Taksim-Gezi Parkı Direnmiş (Resistance)
    • Barricade Defense
    • Taksim-Gezi Parkı Direnmiş (Resistance)
    • What happens to a dream deferred? Ertelenmiş bir düş ne olur? 8 June 2013
    • Turkish Youth Cross Their Rubicon - 6 June 2013
    • ERDOĞAN: TURKEYS “MARGINAL” MAN (4 June 2013)
    • Ayranı Fazla Çekince (Bekir Coşkun-30 Mayıs 2013)
    • ÜMİT UMUTU VERİR 24 Mart 2013
    • Killer Democracy, a portrait
    • Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, president of Republic of Turkey
    • İYİ ŞEKER BAYRAMLAR!!!! AKP'DEN (19/8/2012)
    • KILLERS! My last letter to Obama. (20 December 2013)
    • UCUBE (11/8/2012)
    • Olympic Women (11/8/2012)
    • OBAMABALL: an open letter to the President of the United States (2 August 2012)
    • Sinatra Dedicates One to Ataturk (17 May 2012)
    • As He Lay Dying (14 May 2012)
    • Viva 19 Mayis! Haydi gel! Bizimle ol!
    • It's 19 May...Know Your Enemy! (11 May 2012)
    • America,Turkey--Natural Born Killers
    • I'm as mad as hell... (2 April 2012)
    • ARAB SPRING=AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
    • General Asymmetrica (12 March 2012)
    • Happy World Women's Day in Turkey (8 March 2012)
    • Holy Terror 6 March 2012
    • Kusura Bakma Patron (Bekir Coşkun) 1 Mart 2012
    • The Second Coming of Mustafa Kemal
    • My e-mail note from Barack Obama (12/19/11) and my response
    • High Ground
    • Women's Volleyball Team-the only winners
    • MEDIA ALERT: ATATURK SOCIETIES OF THE USA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM (6 June 2011)
    • BASIN BILDIRISI: AMERİKA VE İNGİLTERE ATATÜRK DERNEKLERİ (6 Haziran 2011)
    • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fascist Moustache
    • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fascist
    • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Wallace Stevens)
    • Epitaph on a Tyrant (W.H. Auden)
    • Ryan Interview: Kanal B, Bilmek Gerek, 28 March 2011
    • Ergenekon Headquarters (karargâh)
    • When the Nazis Came: 8 March 2011
    • Letter to President Obama: 20 Jan. 2009
    • (Türkçe) Letter to President Obama: 20 Jan. 2009
    • Letter to President Obama: 20 Oct. 2009
    • Letter to President Obama: 3 Jan. 2010
    • Letter to President Obama: 20 July 2010
    • (Türkçe) Letter to President Obama: 3 Jan. 2010
    • (Türkçe) Letter to President Obama: 20 Temmuz 2010
    • Letter to US Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone: 18 Feb. 2011
    • Follow-up Letter to Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone: 12 March 2011
    • Letter to US Senator Mark Udall: 12 Feb. 2011
    • Silivri Concentration Camp--Monkeys in Wonderland: 18 August 2010
    • Islam, Secularism and the Battle for Turkey’s Future
    • Turkey-Slouching in Democracy- 25 March 2009
    • WHAT PERCENTAGE OF US ARE STUPID? 5 October 2009
    • The Bloody Streets of Populous Istanbul-17 December 2008
    • Headscarves, Turbans: The Ocular Proof-5 February 2008
    • Portrait of Ataturk-29 November 2006
    • Cool Turkey-7 December 2004
    • Making Hash of Turkish Democracy-16 September 2005
    • Today's Men-10 March 2003
    • Just Keep Saying No, Turkey-9 January 2003
    • Kidnapped (17/8/2012)
  • The Dead
    • AND SO PASSES A WOMAN’S LIFE IN TURKEY (21 October 2014)
    • Bury My Heart At Heartbreak
    • "Adil" means "just" in Arabic (18 July 2012)
    • THERE WILL BE NO ICE CREAM IN DAMASCUS THIS LOVELY EVENING (14 June 2013)
    • IN ISTANBUL A DOORMAN DIES (31 January 2014)
    • İSTANBUL'DA BİR APARTMAN GÖREVLİSİ ÖLÜR (31 Ocak 2014)
    • "Terrorist Pietá"
    • NOTHING BUT MARGARET (9 May 2014)
    • August 6, 1945 (6 August 2012)
    • BREATHLESS IN AMERICA (5 December 2013)
    • JFK DIES FOR THESE SINS (27 December 2013)
  • Short Fiction
    • Benediction
    • ORIENTA
    • Wellspring-"Stealing Apples"
    • INTENSIVE CARE
  • Music
    • GYPSY- All I Need Is the Girl (1989)
    • American Pie (Don Mclean)
    • BACH
    • Jazz
    • Dave Brubeck-In Memoriam
    • Bix Beiderbecke
    • Poetry in Music: The Lyrics of Lorenz Hart >
      • A Ship Without A Sail
      • Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
      • I Could Write A Book
      • I Didn't Know What Time It Was
      • It Never Entered My Mind
      • I Wish I Were In Love Again
      • Mountain Greenery
      • My Romance
      • Spring Is Here
      • Ten Cents A Dance
      • Wait Till You See Her
      • Where Or When
      • You're Nearer
    • SINATRA >
      • Only the Lonely
      • Sinatra's Greatest Hits
      • GET HAPPY, WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS
  • Poetry
    • TO THE IRANIAN KIDS BUSTED ON EXCESSIVE HAPPINESS CHARGE BY TEHRAN’S KORANIC KOPS (22 May 2014)
    • AMERICA
    • Joe the Biden Eats the Bison (21/01/2013)
    • A poem by Etheridge Knight
    • Apprehension in the Bronx Botanical Garden
    • A Shine on the Quay at Üsküdar
    • Atget Dans La Rue De Bac
    • Ballgame
    • Like Kerim
    • Pandemonium
    • Pines
    • Starry Night
    • Senseless, Remembering
    • Six Life Sentences
    • That Russian Woman in the Caffé Taci
    • The Cliffhouse on San Francisco Bay
    • Traitor
    • World Series Obsequies
  • On Peace
    • A WAR ON WARMONGERS, A “JEFFERSONIAN” REBELLION (April 4, 2016)
    • WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SOCIALIST by Chris Hedges (21 September 2015)
    • THE YOUNG EURO CLASSIC PEACE ORCHESTRA
    • MY PLEA FOR JUSTICE TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (14 January 2015)
    • Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah ‘Worse than Hiroshima’ 15 October 2014
    • PRESS RELEASE: WAR CRIMES CHARGES FILED (8 October 2014)
    • Criminal Complaint: International Criminal Court, 6 October 2014
    • What I'd Like to See on Front Pages of Newspapers (By Noam Chomsky)
    • THE NOBEL OBAMA (2 September 2013)
    • My Vote For President: 2012
    • American Democracy
    • Democratic Socialism
  • On America
    • BRONX GIRL OUSTS 10-TERM DEMOCRAT POLITICAL BOSS!
    • The United States of America: Land of internment camps
    • THIS IS AMERICA!
    • MY DISGUST AND DESPAIR ABOUT TRUMP'S SCHEME TO DESTROY THE V.A.
    • MY LETTER TO SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER , 3 February 2017
    • DONALD DEMENTIA
    • Service Academy Graduates Against the War
    • U.S. Service Academy Graduates Oppose Bombing Syria (5 September 2013)
    • SLAUGHTER IN SYRIA: War Crimes Charges against Turkey and America
    • SLAUGHTER IN SYRIA: APPENDICES TO CRIMINAL COMPLAINT TO I.C.C.
    • NO WAY OUT YOU NO GOOD PSEUDO-AMERICAN NEOCON NUDNIK APPARATCHIKS! CATCH ME IF YOU DARE!
    • WILLIE MAYS FOR PRESIDENT! (SEPTEMBER 24, 2016)
    • COUNT ME OUT, BERNIE! NO MORE $3 CONTRIBUTIONS! March 2, 2016
    • The atrocities of ISIS and the US wars of sociocide (26 August 2015)
    • WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT U.S. FOREIGN POLICY (25 August 2015)
    • KILLING RAGHEADS FOR JESUS (By Chris Hedges) (26 January 2015)
    • The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass
    • THOMAS PAINE, OUR CONTEMPORARY (27 May 2014)
    • JAMES SALTER
    • BEFORE A SUMMER SUN >
      • Prologue
      • 4. Teaching Bloody Instructions
      • 8. The Doctrine of Discovery
      • 11. Crazed from the Cradle
      • 15. The Necessary Ending of the American Indian
    • JFK >
      • JFK Files: Cover-Up Continues of President’s Assassination
      • JFK: Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 September 1960)
      • JFK: American University Commencement Address (10 June 1963)
      • JFK HEALTH CARE SPEECH (May 20, 1962)
    • The CIA and the Media
    • The End Of Democracy As We Knew It (Bernd Hamm)
  • On War
    • DON’T CRY TOO MUCH FOR BELGIUM 29 March 2016
    • “COUNTERPRODUCTIVE?" Russia and the Warring in Syria (by Gary Leupp) (23 September 2015)
    • DEBATE: THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN EUROPE (Press TV) James Ryan and Richard Millett (8 September 2015)
    • IT IS TIME TO ARREST THE WAR CRIMINALS, OBAMA AND ERDOGAN. NOW! (28 August 2015)
    • Neither Truth Nor Consequence - 21 Nov 2006
    • MACHIAVELLI VOMITS: Obama and Erdogan Wallow In It (6 August 2015)
    • DRESSED TO KILL SYRIANS AND TRUTH AND US (25 July 2015)
    • Preparing the Battlefield by Seymour M. Hersh (July 7, 2008) The New Yorker
    • THE CHILDREN OF GAZA (2 August 2014)
    • PINK FLOYD: “Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves” (13 July 2014)
    • THE RHETORIC OF VIOLENCE by Chris Hedges (22 April 2014)
    • THE WORLD AS SEEN FROM THE TOP OF A BARRICADE (22 February 2014)
    • Can It Get Any Worse? (9 September 2013)
    • WAR TALK by West Point Graduates Against the War (November 2006, a radio interview) posted 27 August 2013
    • GOOD MOURNING AMERICA (26 August 2013)
    • TURKISH DECEIT: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Allah's Boys
    • HIROSHIMA (6 August 2012)
    • AMERICA’S WAR WHORES' REWARD (30 July 2012)
    • AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS (29 June 2012)
    • Hillary the Hypocrite
    • "Hope" a speech by Chris Hedges
    • Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier (W.H. Auden)
    • Speaking French-1 April 2003
    • PALESTINIANS: "HUMAN DUST" (30 June 2003)
    • More Foul Play-27 March 2003
    • A Day in the Life-25 March 2003
    • The Return of the Has-Beens and the Never-Was-3 March 2003
    • The True Enemy-23 January 2003
  • On West Point
    • GREETING IKE
    • GRAY DAY SASHAY
    • WHO IS MY FATHER IN THIS WORLD?
    • WEST POINT TO HONOR DISHONORABLE GEORGE W. BUSH
    • OBAMA VISITS WEST POINT THEN LIES, CHEATS AND STEALS (6 June 2014)
    • West Point Graduates Organize Against The War - 21 April 2006
    • On West Point, War and Pizza - 6 May 2006
    • Now Is The Time - 12 May 2006
    • Good Neighbor Senator Sessions Walls Out Mexico . . . and Robert Frost - 19 May 2006
    • Cadet Bush at West Point: Screw that chin in, beanhead! - 1 June 2006
    • Guantánamo: The Subject Was Linens- 15 June 2006
    • Impeach the President of the United States - 7 October 2006
    • Election Eve Daze--Hanging in There Together - 6 November 2006
    • Peace Award Remarks - 12 November 2006 - Syracuse, New York
    • George W. MacBush–Serial Murderer - 15 December 2006
    • Abolish It! - 9 Feb 2007
  • Literary Criticism
    • American Book Review
    • Mrs. Ramsay's Wedge: A View of Woolf's "To the Lighthouse"
  • Paintings
    • "Genuine Fake"--"Gerçik Taklit"
    • EQUAL RIGHTS! ... EŞİT HAKLAR!
    • "Progress"--"İlerleme"
    • "Her Şey Ortada"
    • Resimler (7/8/2012)
  • Presentations-Papers
    • Boğaziçi University-Symposium
  • For Reasons Unknown
    • THE ISRAELI-AMERICAN KILLING MACHINE (19 July 2014)
    • I-THE FRAME-UP (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on Trial) 8 January 2009
    • II-THE ARRAIGNMENT (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on Trial) 9 January 2009
    • III-ATATÜRK APPEARS (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on Trial) 26 January 2009
    • How Old Are You? 4 May 2009
    • İŞTE!!! Kurmay Albay Dursun Çiçek!!! (28 October 2009)
    • A. K. P-NESS: The Condition of Being A.K.P. (27 October 2009)
  • On Living
    • "Art, Truth & Politics" by Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
    • The Power of Imagination (Chris Hedges-13 May 2014)
    • WE ARE ALL ONE
    • The Story of Stuff-What Needs To Be Done (10 May 2012)
    • An Arab Springtime? by Samir Amin
    • From Resistance to Revolution
  • Photographs
    • Istanbul
  • Kidnapped (17/8/2012)

The Bloody Streets of Populous Istanbul

Picture
James Ryan
Istanbul, Turkey
17 December 2008

On December 8, for genuine reasons unknown—but with perfect timing, pious enthusiasm, and relentless execution—the streets of Istanbul celebrated the first day of Kurban Bayram, the Feast of Sacrifice. Countless animals, of the inhuman, harmless variety—lambs, cows, bulls, goats—were slain by piously human Turks. And the waters of the Bosphorus ran incarnadine. Over the ensuing days of the weeklong holiday, the homo sapiens variety of the beast, as is usual, outdid itself, soon turning to killing each other in the other ritual slaughter known as holiday traffic accidents—134 dead, 697 injured (1). It is well that Turkey’s national color is red. Allah must have been tickled deeply pink.

 

Picture
On slaughter day, the lambs are always dispatched easily. The larger beasts, perhaps because of their height, see and wise up quicker. Thus, they at least drag their hooves in token resistance. But none are ever a match for the pious Turks who have Allah in their heads, knives in their hands, and often guns in their pockets. It’s a bullfight without grace and danger. It’s an execution, gangland-style. It’s ugly stuff. What, I wonder, do these summary executioners discuss over their compliant, easily dispatched victims? Do they ponder portentously over the emerging, heavily laden entrails? Discuss cutting technique and wrestling holds? Opine on the tactile efficacy of the serous membrane? Or do they just keep praising the greatness of Allah? Oh, you Turkish people, you husbands, wives, lovers, friends—beaten, abused, cheated, insulted—why do you cower like the sheep you slay? Haven’t you taken it enough? Aren’t you fed up? Haven’t you been bled enough?

 

Picture
In the streets of this populous city, amidst the hoards of the under-educated, the under-civilized, the overly-represented (governmentally speaking), and the over-taxed, a young girl gazes trancelike into the beyond. Does she know that when she begins to bleed she will be treated and dressed just like a carcass? Trussed up like a lamb on a lamppost, there she will hang, a political symbol, the ultimate debasement of her—and humanity’s—femininity. Dear, sweet, red-coated child, the waves of political piety sweeping this nation virtually guarantee it. Just look at the sıkma başlı wives of the prime minister and president of Turkey. Surely you will be covered with one of the seemingly endless varieties of head-squeezings that so besiege today’s Turkish women. Her menstrual blood runs, and shame comes to cover our sweet child. Oh, you women, you reluctant heirs of the revolution, you lambs, why do you allow such rape?

 

Picture
She will be so sorely abused, our little moppet who stares at the heavens. Too harsh to call it rape, you say? I think not harsh enough, for many are the organs and orifices available for the raping. Young, pliant, unfettered female minds raped by absurdly conceived—by men—religious traditions. Beauty and youth raped by the de facto sequestering of women from public life. Despite the Atatürk revolution of over eighty years ago, Turkish women remain slaves to ignorance and inertia. In Diyarbakır, a city of nearly 3 million in southeastern Turkey, 80% of the women are illiterate (2). According to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), almost half of Turkish women between 15 and 19 years old neither attend school, nor leave the house. Almost half! And it gets worse with age: 58% for women 20 to 24 years old, 66% for 25 to 29 years old (3). In short, the vast majority of Turkish women are living in the dark ages.

Consider the rape of our starry-eyed darling’s dream for a better life, one rid of blood and knives and bloody shoes and red meat. Who will tell our young beauty who stares at the sky of a better way? The mother and father who will give her to the prepubescent village boy who picks his nose and can’t wait to get his hand around a blade and cut a sheep all by himself?  Too harsh, still? Good.

 

Picture
And what if our wondering girl is saucy and pert and gets into “it” with a man?  And what if the man brought that “it” along in his own full measure. Why, her family honor has been despoiled. Not his, mind you, for he has become a real man, a cutter of lambs. But she? Our beauty must pay. Expect to die, my dear. It will be quick, my dear. It doesn’t matter if you run away. Your family will find you. But take comfort, my dear, it will be quick. You will not even see the blood, though it surely will run in the street. Your father or brother or uncle knows how to do these honorable things very well, my dear. Death, the punishment of choice, preferred by 40% of those polled in a survey done in southeastern Turkey, finishing well ahead of nose-slashing and head-shaving. Death, such an easy remedy to redeem the honor of stalwart men and their noble families (4). 


And what if our lovely young girl is indeed, actually, and absolutely raped. First, she will be blamed for enticing the poor, helpless rapist. And since no self-respecting rapist in Turkey wants to go to jail, what to do? Marry the girl, of course! Yes indeed, no messy family honor problems, no inconvenient jail sentence for our hero rapist. And they live ever after. The streets of Turkey run riot with the blood of women (5).

 

Picture
Women in Istanbul
And who will tell her that upon her first bleeding, our little moppet might end up wrapped in a quasi bed sheet called a çarşaf, black in every sense of the word, with her eyes peering though a slit. For the rest of her adult public life she will walk in her winding sheet, her shroud, her kefen. For the rest of her adult public life, she will breathe no fresh air. Instead, she will stifle herself in the stink and poison of her own exhalations, marinating in her own sweat. For what known reason? For Allah’s sake? No, not Allah, his book is mute on the issue. Then for whose sake? For a Turkish man’s sake? For the craven, American-puppet politicians’ sake? 

 

Picture
Covered Women, Istanbul, November 2003
In 1929, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said:
"In some places I see women who cover their heads with a piece of cloth or towel or something like that, thereby hiding their faces, and who turn their back to the men passing by and sit down on the ground, huddling up. What’s the meaning of this attitude? Tell me, gentlemen, would the mother or the daughter of a civilized nation twist herself into this strange posture? This is a sight which makes the nation appear ludicrous. And it demands correction at once." (6)


At once! Correction at once! Seventy-nine years ago! "At once," he said. Some revolution. 

 

Picture
So, again, who will tell our sweet child what bodes beyond this annually recurring day of animal slaughter? Who will give her fair warning? How will she escape her blood-ridden fate? Who will tell her? Her father with the flensing knife? Her mother, in blood up to her elbows? The observant onlooking uncles? The politicians who pimp and pander for votes over the abused bodies of women? Who will rescue this little girl? Who?

 

James Ryan
Istanbul, Turkey
17 December 2008

 
(1) Sözcü newspaper, 15 December 2008
(2) Turkish Daily News, 8 December 2006; http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-595176
(3) Hürriyet newspaper, 8 February 2008;
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/4/55/39313286.pdf
(4) Turkish Daily News, 8 April 2006; http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-575596
     Turkish Daily News, 19 January 2007;
http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=- 598004
(5) Turkish Daily News, 13 February 2004
, http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-534783
(6) Milliyet newspaper, 3 December 1929

Picture
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1935