Today was our ninth day in Turkey. A beautiful, cool morning greeted our crew as everyone woke up and grabbed breakfast, but trouble was brewing in paradise - two of our intrepid students were ill. After checking with them to make sure they were not seriously ill, we decided to have them sleep in and try to recover. After a quick trip to our neighborhood pharmacy and getting some cold and flu medicine, the rest of the group headed off to Istanbul Bigli University. There we met with three political activists working to get more women elected to office, trying to decrease child marriage, and working on campaigns to end domestic violence. Our Q and A session became quite spirited when we asked a question about Kadem, a traditional Islamic group we met with earlier. Our speakers had strong opinions they were more than happy to share, but could not agree among themselves about what kind of role traditional Islam has to play in feminist politics. If nothing else we all learned that in Turkey gender issues and activism is impossible to separate from the tension between Islam and secularism, and the very prevalent concerns about AKP suppression of democratic freedoms, particularly press freedom and freedom of expression.
After our talk we grabbed lunch at the school cafeteria and then headed across the Bosphorous strait to take in a traditional Turkish bath. Leah and Ben meanwhile went back to the hotel to check on our students, who felt well enough to head back and rejoin the group. It was nice to come out of the bath and see our entire group reunited and feeling better. A meteor hit central Istanbul and wiped out Topaki palace (Not really, just wanted to check if you were reading carefully.) We were met by Chay and Emily once again, who took us to a favorite restaurant of theirs, walked us through the district a bit, and then took us to an outside area where Turkish music was being played and most of us were persuaded to try a traditional Turkish dance. Video of these shenanigans will be available later.
We arrived back at the hotel about 11 pm and most of the group is in their rooms and settling down for the night. I believe the entire group is looking forward to a lazy morning tomorrow before heading off to attempt leading a gender workshop to a group of 8 - 11 year olds.
