The puppets sigh…on women changing faces to make new lives

Posted on December 3, 2014 by lizcameron

Two of the

Two of the “cengi” or dancing ladies that are part of the larger Karagöz puppet troupe (Image thanks to http://www.karagozshop.com)

This morning, the little chorus of “cengi” 0r dancing lady puppets woke me up with a short glass of tea and long, sad faces.  As you may recall, these members of the Karagöz Oyunlari that inhabit my head have NOT gone on sabbatical in Turkey.  Rather, they stayed close to home.  They preferred to stay by my side through thick and thin, even if they do live in my handbag.

You see, these tiny lady puppets all have sad family histories, and joined the puppet troupe’s dancing lady contingent as a way to get away from abuse and neglect as children.  So, going back to Turkey is not necessarily a good thing for them.  They have found a new life in the new world.  And we should celebrate that! They are SO much more than a pretty face or two.  Usually, those who watch a Karagöz puppet show only see these dancing ladies at the start of the shadow theatre, and never get a chance to know them better.  I have had the luck to do the latter! But back to what happened this morning…

“We have some news to share, M’lady,” they said, voices wan and small.  “We already scoured the Hurriyet Daily News for you, to find the articles that you will find most interesting to read with your tea.”  They are really so thoughtful, those tiny little ladies.  I am so grateful for them.

As I rubbed my eyes, the puppets pushed my iPad into my lap.  And there I read about a young lady who is the survivor of a series of violent attacks at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.  You can see the text of the article, below this post. Although she had sought a restraining order, it did not do any good – as those orders rarely do, in my experience as a forensic social worker.

What was shocking and different about this story, however, was the fact that a Turkish court ordered that the state fund plastic surgery, a name change and a University transfer for this woman, so that her abuser could not find her.  At first blush, I thought, well, that is a generous and creative solution, but sets quite a precedent for the state to follow, given the high prevalence of domestic violence faced by women in Turkey.  But then it hit me – as did her purported words – she was sad that she would be forced to change her identity instead of having the court and “the system” stop the violence from her ex-boyfriend.  For all intents and purposes, this means that “the system” acknowledges that nothing can stop the violence, abuse and stalking.  That is a sad reality, and it is all-too familiar…when will the world find a way forward?  Are we reaching a tipping point?  Maybe this court ruling is so absurd that we will.  Here’s to hoping.

So thank you, dear readers, for indulging me in the re-telling of this important story, and if you need something lighter to read after this heavy plop of a post, you can go back to yesterday’s peanut butter debacle or even go back a year to the time we spent Thanksgiving on Cyprus, and had a near miss with some Turkish soldiers in which we could only laugh instead of crying!

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İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

A local court in İzmir has ruled that the state should provide all support for a young woman who was repeatedly exposed to violence by her ex-boyfriend, including a new identity, school, address and even a face via plastic surgery.

Prosecutors ordered a restraining order against the man, but the move failed to stop his advances. The 20-year-old university student had filed a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend who used violence, pressure, threats and insults against her.

Unable to stop the violence, the woman’s lawyer, Mehmet Harun Elçi, said they had demanded a change of identity from the Family Court in reference to the law on protecting the family and preventing violence against woman. The court rejected the demand, prompting an appeal at a higher court.

The second court approved the demand and said the woman would be able to change her face via plastic surgery, the university she is attending, her address and identity. The expenses for the alterations will be covered by the state, the court concluded.

Elçi said the ruling was unprecedented, noting that the closest another court came to permitting such a change in identity was when one woman was permitted to change her name for six months.

The lawyer said his client was happy to have a new life without having threats but that she was disappointed that she had to change her physical identity.

“In fact, the measures should be taken to stop the man’s violence. But this did not happen. This is why my client took such a decision. Of course, she is happy that she will leave that stressful life behind. But she is upset that she has to change her physical appearance,” said Elçi.

Posted in Gendered moments, Turkish Controversies, Visits from the Karagöz puppets | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

A fıstıklı bromance: On overcoming culture-based food biases

Posted on December 3, 2014 by lizcameron

Karagöz recently attempted to stir the pot with me, by pointing out that M. is heavily involved in a “bromance” with another Turkish-American guy.  I guess Karagöz is a little homophobic, but I’m not really clear on that.  Maybe Karagöz is just acculturating to the worst of American norms.  I’m all for bromances, they are a lovely thing.  Ain’t no nicer thing than seeing bromance buddies walking down Istiklal Caddesi hand in hand or arm in arm, after all.  As I make this point, I can see Yehuda Rebbe and Hacivad Bey nodding at me in approval, as they walk arm in arm back to the dining room to finish a debate on some aspect of Jewish-Islamic relations.

But back to this bromance, which is taking place on American turf – and it is distinctly fıstıklı…the Turkish word for “nutty” in the best possible sense.  Finding this particular Turkish-American friend and his partner has made for an absolutely wonderful addition to our life.

M. and S., both somewhat eccentric artists, can relate to one another on distinctly Turkish-American matters among many other things.  Meanwhile, S.’s partner and I can also relate on matters unique to being the American in a Turkish-American relationship…among many other things.

It’s nutty and funny and special, this couple friendship is, and we love it that way.

But back to nuts – which have made another appearance in our cross-cultural marital road trip as of late.  This most recent episode with nuts relates to the fact that out of the clear blue yonder, M. has become obsessed with peanut butter.

This may sound like no great revelation, but you must realize that after years of listening to M. decrying “it” as “food?” fit only for the lowliest of beasts, I’m pretty shocked.

Really, in the 11 years I have known him, I have never heard him do less than protest against the lowly peanut with vim and vigor – usually in a heated tone with pointing fingers all akimbo.

“Turks,” he says loudly, “DO NOT eat or like peanut butter!”

Now, if you know M., you will know that he rants and rails about MANY things.  Some would argue that’s just the Turkish body language/voice volume, and I might agree) – but really – peanut butter is UP THERE in the top three of “bad things to rant and rail about.”  It could be worse, I know.

And that’s where the bromance comes into the picture.  All it took was S. showing up to a dinner party with his favorite Haagen Daaz chocolate and peanut butter ice cream, and the battle against peanut butter was magically over.  No more protests over the presence of peanut butter on the shopping list – and even an occasional errant spoonful of the stuff making way into the mouth of the Turkish part of this couple!

Now, M. just says “I never knew it could be so good!”  And that’s all she wrote on peanut butter.

Let’s not even get into kokorecç*, ok? Karagöz promises that he will indeed get into it.  Let’s hope that’s a few days away, eh?

*Kokorecç, (“koh-kohr-etch”) sounds all to similar to cockroach…but it is actually intestines grilled on a spit, sliced off en masse and slammed in between two pieces of bread. It is street food extraordinaire. M claims that it “tastes better” if the intestines are, ahem, “not completely clean.”

Posted in Turkish Food!, Turkish-American Matters, Visits from the Karagöz puppets | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Esma and Safiye Rakkase brawl over a pistachio nut-fueled metropolis

Posted on November 23, 2014 by lizcameron

Pistachio nuts!

I’m sitting here crunching on tiny green nuggets of joy – a.k.a. pistachios. And this is thanks to my puppets, who recently stumbled upon some fantastic (in all senses) news from Gaziantep province. And Gaziantep province, tabi canim*, is the heart of pistachio production as many of you know.

My puppets discovered this news online. You see, my puppets have discovered Facebook. I mean, they knew it existed, but they didn’t really “get” it until recently. You see, my puppets have been on sabbatical. They went back to Turkey on sabbatical, and left me here in the United States. I only communicate with them via letter, and often their letters full of cross-cultural advice get here after the fact. They still have a window into my mind from thousands of miles away. As my puppets – the Karagöz Oyunlari – are from Ottoman times, they have really had quite a series of shocks on their Turkish sabbatical. For one thing, there is Facebook, but then there are other things like Glutensiz ekmek (gluten free bread), smart phones – heck – cars! It’s been a roller coaster ride across the millennia for those little critters.

Glutensiz ekmek (gluten-free bread)

But back to the point, it was about pistachios. Karagöz, that devilish trickster, began scrolling through his Facebook feed, and all of a sudden, as I heard it, screeched with glee. “Time to invest in pistachio nut shells!” Hacivad, ever the erudite counterpoint to Karagöz, had to run over just then, to see how he could correct for his compatriot’s latest bout of uncouth behavior.

“What is it this time, Karagöz?” Hacivad hissed through clenched teeth. “Why are you sending the masses on a likely wild goose chase?”

Before Karagöz could answer, two other puppets stepped up before Hacivad and began to explain, in a crescendo of intertwined voices. The voices belonged to none other than Esma, the hippie puppet, and her nemesis, Safiye Rakkase, the vainglorious dancing girl puppet.

Safiye Rakkase’s voice was louder:

“…and so if I sew them together with a silver chain, they make the perfect soft clacking sound when I belly dance! I can’t be without them!”

As Safiye Rakkase paused for a breath, Esma’s voice patched in:

“…and that is why we must begin to save all of our pistachio nut shells – to save the southern Anatolian environment!”

Esma cupped her hand over Safiye Rakkase’s mouth before she could begin speaking again, and the two began a very unladylike tussle. This behavior was especially uncharacteristic of Esma, the hippie Sufi. I was quite gobsmacked to hear of it, actually.  It’s been a long time since we had any puppet battles here at Slowly-By-Slowly.

Karagöz stepped forward at this point – waving his iPhone 6S in my face and rambling on at breakneck speed about how there is a new scheme afoot to develop a Turkish “eco city” for 200,000 people – that is – get this – to be heated by the power emitted from burning pistachio shells. This is real – and you can read about it here.  (Or scroll to the bottom of this post, for the text of the article).

So of course, Safiye Rakkase, the fashionista who dances on stage each night in a Josephine Baker-like outfit, wanted the extra nut shells for her costumes while Esma the environmentalist wanted to save the planet.  But in any case…call me jaded, or just call me partnered with a Turkish man for almost 10 years, but I actually wasn’t that surprised. It seems to me that every few months, some sort of grand scheme, or grand plan, is presented in the Turkish news. It always has the same sort of bones – you know – Turkey is so ahead of the game that it is going to X, Y or Z. It’s just that this time, Turkey is going to find a use for the shells of 6,800 tons worth of pistachio nuts themselves.  At least it isn’t as bad as the recent news that a major political player in Turkey has claimed that Muslims discovered America first…

So back to Gaziantep, which is the source of much more palatable news than that.  Thanks to pistachio nuts, we are going to have, as the article says, a “nut-fueled metropolis.”

Perhaps it is time for me, M. and the Karagöz puppets to move to Gaziantep – we’d be in nutty company for sure!

* this phrase means “of course, dear”

How Pistachios Could Potentially Power the Planet

What would you do with thousands of tons of leftover nutshells? A weird question, to be sure, but one that Turkey — one of the world’s largest producers of pistachios — has been asking itself for years.

Usually the discarded pistachio shells end up in landfills, but nut-loving Turks think they’ve found a far better solution by turning it into biogas, an alternative fuel produced by the breakdown of organic matter.

Now Turkey wants to use pistachio shells to power its first eco-city, which will require fermenting tons of the green waste in so-called digesters and using the resulting gases — mostly methane — to generate heat.

When you plan such environment-friendly systems, you take a look at natural resources you have.

The idea is not as crazy as it sounds. For starters, the green city will be built in what’s arguably the best possible location: Gaziantep Province. This southern region near the Syrian border is the heart of Turkey’s pistachio production, yielding more than 50 percent of the country’s nuts.

“When you plan such environment-friendly systems, you take a look at the natural resources you have. So we thought the ecological city could be heated by burning pistachio shells,” explains Seda Muftuoglu Gulec, the municipality’s expert on green architecture. “If the region was abundant in wind power, we would use wind energy.”

This peculiar source of energy is renewable and cheap because Turkey has plenty of shells to go around, so much so that it exported 6,800 tons — 500 tons shy of the weight of the Eiffel Tower — of pistachios last year, according to the Southeast Anatolia Exporters Union.

Posted in A Karagöz puppet battle, Turkish Food!, Visits from the Karagöz puppets | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments