With satire, womans magazine tackles taboos in Turkey

July 21, 2011

ISTANBUL, July 21 A man stabs a woman in broad daylight in the middle of the street. He is killing her! Dont do it! Call the police! a group of passers-by scream, rushing to the womans rescue.You wont divorce me! the attacker shouts as he viciously plunges the knife into the woman. The passers-by suddenly turn their back on the couple. Family matters, they say walking away. None of our business.

The latest issue of Bayan Yani is seen in this photo illustration taken in Istanbul on July 19, 2011. Reuters picThe scene not uncommon in Turkey is a vignette in Bayan Yani, a Turkish womans satirical magazine that tackles taboo issues with a mix of social criticism and acid humour.Launched in March and produced by women cartoonists and women writers only, Bayan Yani has made a splash confronting uncomfortable topics such as honour killings, womens rights, sex, adultery and Islam, and with occasional irreverent glances at lighter fare such as weight loss or cellulite.This magazine has taken a huge step, Elif Nursad, a 31-year-old artist who makes psychedelic drawings, mostly inspired by cats and the female body, told Reuters.Other comic magazines in Turkey depict women as sex objects to increase circulation. We came together and formed something we didnt expect to be so successful. Turkey is a fast-consuming society and its open to new things. Bayan Yani is a completely new discourse.Bayan Yani means the seat next to the womans seat referring to a Turkish convention on long-distance coaches under which a woman travelling alone is not seated next to a man.The monthly magazine, which has a budget of US$30,000 (RM90,000) per month, has a circulation average of 50,000 copies a high number in a country where newspaper readership is normally low.Nursad said she was leery of working for a womans magazine, but says she has never had so much freedom as in Bayan Yani.Muslim Turkey is often held as an example by democracy activists in the Middle East and in North Africa, where Arab Spring revolts are shaking the pillars of the establishment and in some countries such as Egypt and Tunisia have ousted leaders.But womens activists in Turkey, who have been boosted by Ankaras prospects of European Union accession, say more progress is needed to improve their role in Turkish society, economics and politics.Although women in Turkey have had the vote since 1934, their participation in politics and company boards remains low, and rights groups say cases of domestic violence against women and girls are alarmingly high.The World Economic Forums 2010 Gender Gap Report ranked Turkey 126th out of 131 countries.As years go by, one may think women are liberated, but the truth is they are being more and more imprisoned, said Nursad.Women in Turkey are shinier, more colourful, more vivid and varied but at the end of the day the basis of the society is made up of men. Women are in display like mannequins on a shop window, the high heels, mini-skirts ... Its a more dangerous form of discrimination.The 20-women strong staff at Bayan Yani said they were mocked by their male counterparts in Turkeys lively comic scene when Bayan Yani hit the stands. One male cartoonist who works for another humour magazine asked if the magazines staff consisted of women who cant get an orgasm.But they say men also read Bayan Yani, albeit secretly.Some of our male readers have asked us that we change the name of the magazine because they were too shy to buy it or to read it in public, said Raziye Icoglu, 45, who writes a humorous column for the magazine.A ceramics artist, Icoglu said she started working for Bayan Yani after divorcing her cheating husband.Women in Turkey are so desperate for help that they hope for help even from a monthly magazine, said Icoglu, who credits the magazine for lifting her from the the bottom of a well. Thats what being a housewife fe! els like .She said the magazine works as a support group for women.Two issues ago I wrote a piece on divorce and I received e-mails from women saying they were going through the same thing. Women can be united. People thought we couldnt make it, but its the fourth issue of the magazine that youre reading.Under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogans socially conservative AK Party, Turkey has become one of the fastest growing economies of the world and a rising regional power admired by Muslim countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.Erdogans government has relaxed rules against a ban on womens headscarves at university long seen by some as discriminatory against religious women. But some critics fear Turkey is falling behind on gender equality under AK, which evolved from banned Islamist movements and espouses a socially conservative agenda.The only female Cabinet member of Erdogans new government, announced this month, is in charge of family and social policies; there are only 67 women lawmakers in the 550-seat Parliament.A Human Rights Watch report in May said Turkish women have been left vulnerable to extreme brutality by family members because of poor enforcement of domestic violence laws.A 2009 survey by Turkeys Hacettepe University found around 42 per cent of women aged over 15, and 47 per cent of rural women, had experienced violence at the hands of a husband or partner at some point in their lives. Only 8 per cent of them sought help.The staff at Bayan Yani, who wear jeans, smoke and do not use headscarves, say they have never received threats because of their work. The only male contributor to the magazine is the editor, who they describe as very supportive.Despite the issues they tackle, they do not see Bayan Yani as an only-for-women magazine.Its very natural that the main issues we touch upon are women issues. You draw what you live, Nursad said. Reuters