freedom of expression in Turkey again: perihan mağden and elif şafak
Update: don't know how I missed this, but Maureen Freely had an essay about Shafak and the other 301 cases in the NYT Sunday Book Review last week (via 3 Quarks Daily).
Well, nationalist asshats I promised you, and nationalist asshats you shall have (sadly). It's been some time since I blogged about the contiuning freedom of expression battles in Turkey. Since the case against Orhan Pamuk was dropped, international media attention has largely evaporated, but the problem hasn't done the same. Nationalist activists, lawyers, and prosecutors continue to use Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code to wage a campaign of legal harrassment against writers, journalists, activists, and publishers who challenge their narrow and authoritarian vision of Turkish identity. Although the AKP government isn't directly behind these efforts (and indeed, is a secondary target of sorts for the hardliners) it's failed to firmly condemn this intimidation campaign and, more importantly, reform the penal code to make it impossible for prosecutors to file such cases.
One of the major recent cases involved charges against Perihan Mağden, a novelist, poet, and columnist for the daily newspaper Radikal (I'm currently reading her novel 2 Girls). The case focused on a column she wrote defending Mehmet Tarhan, a queer rights activist and conscientious objector, whose imprisonment for his refusal to do mandatory military service became a cause celebre for the Turkish left. She was charged with insulting the military, but was acquitted last month by a judge who ruled that her comments fell under the scope of freedom of expression. Words Without Borders has a couple of short stories by Mağden, and several of her novels are available in English translation.
Novelist and academic Elif Şafak (Shafak) is also the target of a similar intimidation campaign, based on comments about the Armenian genocide made by a character in her new novel Baba ve Piç/The Bastard of İstanbul. The case was filed at the instigation of--guess who?--our old friend Kemal Kerinçşiz, whose Article 301-related exploits I've written about a number of times: here, here, and here, among others. The Guardian (which consistently has the best coverage of the Article 301 cases and other human rights cases that I've seen in the English-language press, bar none) has a good overview of the case that includes an interview with Shafak. Another recent article announces that the court date for her trial has been set--four days in before she is due to give birth. Shafak, incidentally, is an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, and is a member of MESA (I met her briefly at last year's annual conference). MESA's Committee on Academic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa (CAFMENA) has issued this letter to PM Erdoğan calling on his government to seek the dropping of the charges against Shafak and remove Article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code.
The right-wing nationalist camp dislikes Shafak not only for her outspoken commentary and the controversial topics of her novels, but--as the first Guardian article points out--for her choice to start writing fiction in English, which some consider a sort of cultural "betrayal." Both The Bastard of Istanbul and The Saint of Incipient Insanities (which deals with the travails of multicultural grad student life in Boston, and is a fun read) were written first in English; her earlier novels (I recommend Bit Palas/The Flea Palace and Mahrem/"Private", translated into English under the title The Gaze) were all written in Turkish. For those who read Turkish, Shafak's recent essay collection Med-Cezir (touching on themes of sexuality, feminism, Islam, postcolonialism, Turkish politics, literature, the whole 'East/West' dichotomoy) is very interesting; I read some of it when I was in İstanbul but neglected to bring back a copy. Words Without Borders (bless them) has a characteristically intriguing essay called "Women Writers, Islam, and the Ghost of Zulaika" available in English.
Between the topic of Article 301 cases on one hand, and questions of cultural authenticity and betrayal on the other, I should finally post a link to Pamuk's recent essay "Who do you write for? That is the question"--a thoughtful discussion of the shift from a time when the novel existed in the context of a "national" audience to the results of
Well, nationalist asshats I promised you, and nationalist asshats you shall have (sadly). It's been some time since I blogged about the contiuning freedom of expression battles in Turkey. Since the case against Orhan Pamuk was dropped, international media attention has largely evaporated, but the problem hasn't done the same. Nationalist activists, lawyers, and prosecutors continue to use Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code to wage a campaign of legal harrassment against writers, journalists, activists, and publishers who challenge their narrow and authoritarian vision of Turkish identity. Although the AKP government isn't directly behind these efforts (and indeed, is a secondary target of sorts for the hardliners) it's failed to firmly condemn this intimidation campaign and, more importantly, reform the penal code to make it impossible for prosecutors to file such cases.
One of the major recent cases involved charges against Perihan Mağden, a novelist, poet, and columnist for the daily newspaper Radikal (I'm currently reading her novel 2 Girls). The case focused on a column she wrote defending Mehmet Tarhan, a queer rights activist and conscientious objector, whose imprisonment for his refusal to do mandatory military service became a cause celebre for the Turkish left. She was charged with insulting the military, but was acquitted last month by a judge who ruled that her comments fell under the scope of freedom of expression. Words Without Borders has a couple of short stories by Mağden, and several of her novels are available in English translation.
Novelist and academic Elif Şafak (Shafak) is also the target of a similar intimidation campaign, based on comments about the Armenian genocide made by a character in her new novel Baba ve Piç/The Bastard of İstanbul. The case was filed at the instigation of--guess who?--our old friend Kemal Kerinçşiz, whose Article 301-related exploits I've written about a number of times: here, here, and here, among others. The Guardian (which consistently has the best coverage of the Article 301 cases and other human rights cases that I've seen in the English-language press, bar none) has a good overview of the case that includes an interview with Shafak. Another recent article announces that the court date for her trial has been set--four days in before she is due to give birth. Shafak, incidentally, is an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, and is a member of MESA (I met her briefly at last year's annual conference). MESA's Committee on Academic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa (CAFMENA) has issued this letter to PM Erdoğan calling on his government to seek the dropping of the charges against Shafak and remove Article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code.
The right-wing nationalist camp dislikes Shafak not only for her outspoken commentary and the controversial topics of her novels, but--as the first Guardian article points out--for her choice to start writing fiction in English, which some consider a sort of cultural "betrayal." Both The Bastard of Istanbul and The Saint of Incipient Insanities (which deals with the travails of multicultural grad student life in Boston, and is a fun read) were written first in English; her earlier novels (I recommend Bit Palas/The Flea Palace and Mahrem/"Private", translated into English under the title The Gaze) were all written in Turkish. For those who read Turkish, Shafak's recent essay collection Med-Cezir (touching on themes of sexuality, feminism, Islam, postcolonialism, Turkish politics, literature, the whole 'East/West' dichotomoy) is very interesting; I read some of it when I was in İstanbul but neglected to bring back a copy. Words Without Borders (bless them) has a characteristically intriguing essay called "Women Writers, Islam, and the Ghost of Zulaika" available in English.
Between the topic of Article 301 cases on one hand, and questions of cultural authenticity and betrayal on the other, I should finally post a link to Pamuk's recent essay "Who do you write for? That is the question"--a thoughtful discussion of the shift from a time when the novel existed in the context of a "national" audience to the results of
the changes in communication that we've seen over the past 30 years: In the age of global media, literary writers are no longer people who need address only the middle classes in their own countries, but people who can address - and address immediately - readers of "literary novels" all the world over.As one of those readers, I'm glad--not only because of the wealth of stories available, but because the ability of writers like Pamuk and Shafak to transcend the national space makes their work more intriguing and challenging--and sometimes, troubling--to a narrowly national(ist) audience, as well. No wonder the likes of Kerinçşiz feel threatened by their fictions.
posted by kitabet at 11:56 PM
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