Internationally acclaimed writer Elif Shafak talks about how Abdullah Gul’s election as president is causing ripples in Turkish society about its political and secular beliefs. The crux of the matter is that Gul is a former AK Party member, which is often referred to as an Islamist party, and his wife Hayrunisa Gul (now the first lady of Turkey) wears the headscarf, a problematic symbol that is at the heart of the controversy. But Shafak points out that:

Not all covered women are giving a political message. Similarly, not all covered women are “ignorant” or “repressed”.

More significantly, the structure of the Turkish family constantly brings together covered and uncovered women.

Sometimes the mother-in-law is covered but the daughter-in-law is not. One sister is covered but not another.

Even taking a stroll along a crowded street in Istanbul will show us how covered and uncovered women live together all the time.

Turkey’s role in history has always been significant. Not only does it lie at the intersection of two continents, it also combines other forces.

Within the amazing diversity of the Muslim world, Turkey occupies a unique place.

In an age when the number of people who believe in a clash of civilisations escalates every day, here is a country that is predominantly Muslim and staunchly secular at the same time.

The discussion on the president’s wife and the position of women in Turkey lies at the centre of all these massive political debates.

It will be interesting to see how Turkey reconciles this latest challenge to the coexistence of divergent views. Meanwhile, Hayrunisa Gul has asked an Austrian couturier of Turkish heritage to redesign her headscarves. Perhaps, in a bid to prove that headscarves can be modern too?

An earlier post about Turkey here.

There’s cause to rejoice for liberal forces in a conservative nation. After many postponements and delays, Pakistan’s National Art Gallery opened to the public this week with an exhibit of 600 works. The idea of having a national art gallery was first mooted 25 years ago and its taken half a century of persistence for it to see the light of day. Even more significantly, the Ministry of Culture has promised there will be no censorship.

Sprawling over 1800 square yards, the National Art Gallery is located in Islamabad. The massive project includes 14 galleries with adjacent display areas, lecture halls, workshops and storage facilities, a laboratory, a library, a cafeteria and an auditorium. According to this report:

The interior space is white with warm accents such as a brick-paved ramp leading to the mezzanine, and a few areas with wood detailing on the ceiling. An auditorium and a rooftop courtyard are surrounded by delicate arches.

The exterior is made almost entirely of brick — a rare choice in an era of new museums around the world constructed with large concrete or stone slabs.

Some of the art on display reflects classic concerns of Pakistani society. A miniature painting by Waseem Ahmed entitled ‘Burqa’ has the reclining Venus in a gauzy, transparent burqa, gazing into a mirror that reflects apples, clearly making references to the position of women in Pakistani society and concepts like narcissism and temptation. From this website:

The Burqa symbol is used to explore the validity of the veil in a patriarchal society, especially with reference to gender bias and the prevalent East West disparity in thought and action regarding feminist issues.

A sculpture by Khalil Chishtee, constructed entirely of white plastic bags, depicts a woman walking a tightrope, with a man below with his head turned up toward her, “apparently held in position by a thread tugging his nose skyward”. Interestingly, it’s called ‘Your Success, My Failure’ and provokes questions about gender disparity and its implications. You can take a look at it here.

Art plays a crucial role in examining society and in challenging or subverting accepted norms. But to do this, it needs freedom. The opening of the gallery is huge step in the right direction. Whether or not conservative forces will stay out of the workings of the gallery and artists will continue to enjoy this level of new-found freedom is something that we will have to wait and watch.

The NY Times asks its readers an interesting question:

A charter school in Florida has come under fire for tying its Hebrew-language based curriculum to religion. Opponents of the Ben Gamla Charter School say that it is impossible to teach Hebrew — and aspects of Jewish culture — outside of a religious context.

How do you feel about publicly financed schools that cater to particular languages or cultures?

I think the question can be broadened to how important a role culture should play in education at all, which demands a closer look at the interplay between culture and society. The Dictionary of Modern Sociology defines culture as “the total, generally organized way of life, including values, norms, institutions, and artifacts, that is passed on from generation to generation by learning alone.” So culture is both integral to a person and inherited from the past. Because it defines so much of how a person should live, it forms a crucial component of his or her identity.

But in an increasingly globalized world, people often have to learn new ways of life and unlearn what has been passed down to them. This can lead to people feeling confused, overwhelmed or unanchored from their identity — psychological conditions that can have far-reaching impact on social interaction and relationships. Increasing globalization, travel and immigration are creating more subcultures within nations, which means that questions surrounding this are assuming center-stage.

Traditionally, the tricky business of culture has been negotiated in different ways. Countries have adopted approaches ranging from monoculturalism (when in Rome be as the Romans are) to multiculturalism (be yourself even while in Rome) and melting pot (do whatever comes naturally). But the thorniest angle of culture is always values.

In a perfect world, we would all believe in the same basic values and uphold the same fundamental rights. But this is not really the case, is it? Varying rules and attitudes regarding relationships, sex, marriage, divorce and recreation prevail in different cultures. Where does one draw the line between respecting other cultures and condoning heinous practices? How far should a state go to maintain and encourage subcultures without endangering the fundamental principles of its nationhood? Walking the tightrope between respecting cultural diversity and building a world that is safe and free for all remains one of the key challenges of our times.

I tend to agree with this view on the politics of culture:

When culture is treated as nothing more than an innocent accretion of solutions and practices, and each culture is seen as something inviolate, then all cultures are accepted at face value and cultural relativism is the suggested standard. So we hear that we should avoid ethnocentrism and respect other cultures. To be sure, after centuries in which indigenous cultures have been trampled underfoot by colonizers, we need to be acutely aware of the baneful effects of cultural imperialism and of the oppressive intolerance manifested toward diverse ethnic cultures within our own society.

But the struggle to preserve cultural diversity should not give carte blanche to anyone in any society to violate basic human rights. Many patriarchal cultures, for example, are replete with “sacrosanct customs” that, on closer examination, promote the worst kinds of gender victimization, including the mutilation of female children through clitorectomy and infibulation, and the sale of young girls into sexual slavery.

If one applies to this to the debate around education, the answer seems simple enough — conditional support. But examining what these conditions should be and defining them accurately and precisely is required as a first step towards a pluralistic world that still has some basics in common.

Everyone’s talking about the world becoming smaller. We live in a time when geographical boundaries have blurred to an extent and phrases like the “global village” have found their way into our lexicon. This NY Times article points out that “global demographics are shifting” with international migrants becoming more skilled and educated than they have been traditionally.

The number of college-educated migrants in rich Western countries rose 69 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to a World Bank analysis prepared for The New York Times. By contrast, the number of less-educated migrants rose 31 percent.

The article also talks about how it has becoming easier for the educated to be mobile and treat the world as their playground—or in this case, workplace. Unlike unskilled migrants, they are welcomed and feted because every country wants brainy people working in it—and for it.

Better economic prospects, improved lifestyle, different choices, and the opportunity to see an alternative culture are some of the factors that drive immigrants but moving to another country also involves huge scale disruption and displacement. While skilled workers can fall back on various social and material perks to cheer themselves up, unskilled migrants get the unbuttered side of the bread. And yet, it’s dangerous to ignore them as history has proven time and again.

Migration is a complex subject because of the many economic and social implications attached to it—brain drain, remittances, integration—and governments need to take it very seriously. Some things have been happening on this front. In 2005, the European Union came up with a framework for the integration of immigrants, which is available here. Last year, the United Nations recommended that a global consultative forum be formed to promote inter-governmental dialogue on migration. The first meeting of this forum was held in Brussels last month. They came up with a comprehensive list of recommendations including easier remittance transfer mechanisms, flexibility in visas and residential status of skilled migrants so that they can return periodically and contribute to home country development, and recognition of domestic work as ‘work’. Read the full report here.

Despite the world getting flatter, as Thomas Friedman so famously put it, rich countries still guard their territorial borders rather zealously. Particularly, unskilled migrants are often viewed with suspicion or as inferior citizens. British economist Philippe Legrain makes a compelling case for welcoming more immigrants into richer countries—even the unskilled ones—in his book “Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them”.

Over the next twenty years, the supply of potential migrants in poor countries is likely to continue rising. While rich countries’ baby-boom generation are nearing retirement age, poor countries’ much younger baby-boomers are just starting to enter the labour market. Many of these young people will be tempted by the prospect of a better life in North America, Europe or Australia, especially since moving to a foreign land seems less daunting now that there are established immigrant communities in most rich countries. At the same time, the demand for migrants in rich countries is set to rise, as ageing populations and shrinking workforces put a strain on businesses, economies and government finances. With more old people around, the demand for services such as nursing care will soar. With more rich people around, the demand for services such as cleaning and restaurant work will also grow fast. Since people in rich countries increasingly turn their noses up at such jobs, the demand for immigrants to fill them will inevitably rise. Demand for skilled immigrants is also likely to increase, as companies, cities and countries compete for an advantage in the global marketplace by trying to hire the most talented people, most of whom will increasingly come from poor countries, where the number of university graduates is rising fast.

Read the entire excerpt here.

The NY Times has an interesting snapshot of global migration on its site, which records that about 3 per cent of the world’s population lived outside their country of birth in 2005. Predictably, the US had the largest share of the world’s migrant population and the second highest was in Germany. India, Mexico and China are the countries where migrants send home the most money. Dilip Ratha, a Senior Economist in the World Bank and Task Manager of the Global Economic Prospects 2006, has also spoken about how remittances can reduce poverty in this paper.

Remittances provide a convenient angle for approaching the complex migration agenda. They play an effective role in reducing poverty. Since remittances are personal flows from migrants to their friends and families, they tend to be well targeted to the needs of the recipients. And these flows typically do not suffer from the governance problems that may be associated with official flows.

There are many arguments for governments accepting international migration and putting into place policies to smoothen the ride, rather than making it more arduous. How far they go in actually implementing measures towards this is something that remains to be seen.

Thirteen-year-old Kenia from Madagascar has been in and out of hospital for the last few years. Among other things, she suffers from anorexia and incontinence and has had to undergo a colostomy. Kenia was sexually violated by her uncle when she was nine. She is just one of many children in sub-Saharan Africa, whose life has been maimed by sexual abuse. The problem is devastatingly common according to this article and abuse cases are on the rise in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and other African countries.

WHO called it a “silent health emergency” three years ago. In their report, they pinpointed the causes as “economic poverty, and in some cases, affluence, armed conflicts and the breakdown of family and social systems”. They also pointed out that:

There is usually a strong element of denial and guilt if the suspected perpetrator is a family member. If a girl is sexually abused, she loses her worth for marriage. The child lives with the trauma but without professional and social counselling and support. The mother’s low status in the family and certain social taboos prevent reporting of such incidents. The superstitious belief that sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV/AIDS is accentuating the problem.

Like in Kenia’s case, the problem usually strikes frighteningly close to home. According to studies cited by Advocates for Youth, 51 percent of children between six months and 15 years of age receiving medical treatment for sexual abuse in rural South Africa have been abused by a neighbor, an acquaintance, a lodger or a stranger. In Zimbabwe, half of reported rape cases involve girls less than 15 years of age and girls are most vulnerable to sexual abuse by male relatives, neighbors and school teachers.

What is even more horrific at some level are the quick-fix solutions sought. In Zimbabwe, rape cases are sometimes settled out of court. The perpetrator either pays compensation to the girl’s father or pays a bride price and marries the girl.

The emphasis is on avoiding the costs that the family will have to incur financially (for treatment) and socially in terms of public shame and dishonour. In such cases, the child herself is a forgotten entity.

Apart from the tremendous psychological impact on a child, sexual abuse can also lead to infections, sexually transmitted diseases, internal lacerations and damage to internal organs. Young girls are vulnerable in multiple ways — because of age and gender — and in poorer families, because of economic disadvantages as well. WHO has suggested guidelines for child sexual abuse prevention here. The guidelines recommend, among other things:

…a set of priority interventions such as vigorous advocacy and communication, enhanced law enforcement and the development of a standardized protocol for clinical care and management.

The education of the child is an important component. Child sexual abuse often occurs in familiar spaces, among known people. The effects are also often exacerbated because the abuse is continued over a period of time. Children must know how to recognize abuse, yes. But equally crucial is that they feel that they can immediately talk to their parents about it. The conviction that they will be heard, and believed, no matter how close the perpetrator is to the family is vital. In many families, parents and children communicate at a superficial level constrained by misguided notions of propriety. Parents are loathe to discuss anything remotely related to sex with children because they want to preserve their innocence. This silence can be dangerous.

In more traditional societies, efforts must be made to delink necessary information on sexual matters from conventional ideas of morality. Children are often aware of their vulnerability, and scared as a result of this awareness. This fear leads to an inability to speak up. Providing them with a safe harbour is important. Stop It Now!, an organization that works in this area, provides tips here on what adults can do to prevent child sexual abuse — and help their children prevent it.

Schools can and should play a pivotal role in creating awareness and sensitivity. Unfortunately, many of our educational systems are floundering under antiquated notions of what must be taught and what can be omitted. So while, children are taught the names of people who fought wars 5000 years ago, they are not given information on how to protect themselves. Self defence, which should be a priority, seldom figures on the curriculum. Increasingly, the skills taught at school are irrelevant to what is required for survival in the real world.

The challenges are graver and more complex in societies where families have broken down and schools are poor, understaffed and lack resources. Meanwhile, Kenia’s situation remains bleak.

A surgeon who examined her this month said a full recovery was unlikely. The uncertainty preys on Kenia, her mother said. “Sometimes she tells me, ‘My body is hurting. I have so many problems. I don’t go to school. I just feel this sickness all around me,’” she said.

Betombo, who sexually abused her, is a free man. Kenia’s parents want justice for their daughter but they’ve almost given up hope. It is for girls like Kenia that the long journey towards change must continue. And the silence must be broken.

Two days from now, India will celebrate sixty years of independence and the world’s largest democracy is talking about little else these days. While Bollywood movies like this one tickle the patriotic nerve and young boys eagerly push cloth flags into the faces of car drivers at traffic junctions, the newspapers are flooded with retrospective columns and reports. You can read about the sixty momentous events that made India including historic landmarks like the India-Pakistan wars, Indira Gandhi’s ascension to power and the IT revolution. There’s also the sixty most successful men and women and sixty years of filmmaking. Yes, the ’sixty’ theme will be done to death in the next few days.

Landmark dates are usually accompanied by a host of chronicles, report cards, and nostalgic reveries. And why not? It’s as good a time as any to look back and see what a country has achieved–and what it hasn’t. This columnist points to some of the hard-won successes that dot India’s trajectory.

Culturally, there isn’t (thank god) a “national culture” in place, but there’s a confidence amongst the citizens of the republic that being “Indian” is easy. The film industries that dot every part of the country are vulgarly healthy, our upmarket discos play bhangra, our haute couture is hideous but popular, our art has invented a market for itself, our television industry proliferates and Indian audiences remain relatively indifferent to foreign programming.

Our newspapers continue to expand and prosper and compete: Unlike America, where the newspaper readership of whole cities is virtually owned by single papers—The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, etc. Our writers are better paid now, their books better produced and their publishing houses more entrepreneurial. Which Indian writer would be nostalgic for the bad old days when being published meant Hind Pocket Books or Jaico?

Intellectually and academically, India has a sense of self that Pakistan or Malaysia or Indonesia don’t. Academic publishing for an Indian market has struck roots and while its quality is variable, it has the great merit of creating a body of work that examines aspects of Indian society and history that might be of little interest to foreign readers but are vitally important for us.

While the tone is relentlessly gung-ho for the most part, there are some dissenters who point towards India’s problems–corruption in its government, poverty among its millions and lack of personal freedoms–and ask the question “whence freedom?”

This columnist asks some tough questions:

At a time when we measure the quality of justice on the basis of a Bollywood star being sentenced for an acknowledged misdemeanor, and the media continues to obsess about Sanjay Dutt, how he feels, what he eats, how he sleeps in Yeravada jail even as thousands of undertrials rot in our jails for years, even decades, without anyone hearing about them leave alone worrying about the conditions under which they survive, we have to ask ourselves whether we have deliberately chosen to ignore reality. Growing older should not mean becoming blind, even if myopia is a physical condition that sometimes increases with age.

So does this one:

Across the country, law and order is a joke, and our government fattens itself on the sweat of a billion people. Free speech is endangered and censorship thrives. Honest men wishing to start a business that will fulfil the needs of others—as all businesses must in order to survive—find themselves having to deal with licences and inspectors.

The price of freedom, it is often said, is eternal vigilance. We let our guard down 60 years ago. Perhaps it’s time to fight back?

Meanwhile, even amid the celebrations, violence mars the landscape. In the north-eastern state of Assam, rebels have killed 13 people and wounded another 15. But this is unlikely to dampen the spirit in the rest of this vast country. Despite all the frustration and cynicism, most Indians still feel an immense amount of pride at their nationhood and much of this will be on glorious tri-coloured display in the next few days.

“Bullfighting is a dramatic ritual in which the death and suffering of life find their ultimate poetic expression.”

So says Pedrito, Portugal’s most famous matador, who had to pay a hefty fine of $137,000 when he ended one of his fights by killing the bull. This is because killing a bull is considered murder in Portugal and it was outlawed in 1928, unlike in Spain where this rather bloodthirsty sport originated. Pedrito’s case apparently sparked of a nationwide debate.

His supporters argue that a death-free struggle is a sacrilege because the culmination of a bullfight should reflect man’s ultimate triumph or defeat against the bull, while critics contend that Portugal must retain its civility and show humanity to animals.

One place that supports Pedrito is Barrancos, a bullfight-loving town near the Spanish border that persisted so stubbornly in encouraging the killing of bulls that the government relented in 2002 and gave it a dispensation from the ban.

Despite the conflict with animal rights and vigorous protests by some groups, bullfighting has prevailed because it is deeply entrenched in culture. The history of tauromachy goes as far back as 2000 BC. Bullfights were popular in Rome and an important part of life in the Iberian Peninsula. Many Spanish people feel that abolishing bullfighting would be an unforgivable interference with the country’s cultural traditions.

But the voices of dissent may be getting louder. TIME reports that two days from now, a pro-animal rights group Andalusian Collective Against Animal Mistreatment (CACMA, according to its Spanish initials), will stage the first demonstration ever in Malaga against bullfighting. The article goes on to say that according to a Gallup poll, only 8% of Spaniards consider themselves bullfighting fans but the grisly sport is popular in other parts of the world — Portugal and France of course, but also far-flung countries like China, Armenia and South Korea.

Meanwhile, animal rights groups in some countries are trying to do their little bit by exhorting people to boycott bullfights when they visit Spain, Portugal or France. The Irish Council Against Blood Sports is appealing to the humane side of tourists. It says:

Seeing a cut-up bull stumbling weakly around a bullring with blood spurting from its back and spraying from its mouth and nostrils is sure to leave a dark shadow across holiday memories. In fact, many who venture into bullrings out of curiosity leave in disgust as the animals are mercilessly killed before their eyes.

Shark Online, an animal rights group, has some seriously disturbing pictures on their website. Animal lovers are advised to steel themselves. The League Against Cruel Sports has launched “Boycott the Bloodbath”, a campaign against bullfighting and gives some very specific steps that people can follow. FAACE, an organization in the UK, tells you how you can help the animals through donations and other means.

This San Francisco Chronicle columnist says it with biting humour:

I don’t buy into that Hemingway-inspired mythology of bullfighting as metaphor for life one iota. It’s not graceful. It’s not artistic. And it’s certainly not sport. What it is, is torture of large animals for the amusement of smaller ones. Namely, people.

Therefore, I take great amusement in watching and reading about idiots in white judo pajamas and dashing red bandanas getting gored by bulls in Pamplona. Serves ‘em right. Go, bulls!

But right now, Pedrito’s sentiments seem to be on the winning side.

“Good bulls are noble: They humiliate the bullfighter and do not fear him,” he says. “When I kill a bull, I don’t think about it. It is just another movement in a bullfight, and this movement is to kill.

Cultural essential or abominable cruelty — what do you think?

Millions of families have been affected by flooding in South Asia. The death toll continues to rise in India, Nepal and Bangladesh and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes because they were submerged or washed away in the floods. The United Nations has described the flood situation in India and Bangladesh as “the worst in living memory”.

Even as the flood waters have started receding, the people here have to battle other dangers like disease and starvation. People are suffering from lack of food and shortage of medical supplies. Save the Children is trying to raise money for relief work and has made an appeal for donations. Click here to access the online donation form.

Across the region more than 20 million people have been affected - 6.9 million in Bangladesh, 13.7 million in India and hundreds of thousands more in Nepal, according to this report in the Guardian. Experts say that the excessive rains are a direct cause of climate change and that things will only get worse in the coming years. The problem was exacerbated by the collapse of dams and embankments.

Officials have said that aid efforts are insufficient so far. According to the BBC, governments in India and Bangladesh are trying to deliver supplies, but many areas cannot even be reached by boat, so air drops are the only way. Given that there is ample warning of the same situation recurring next year, governments should start developing better coping mechanisms in advance. There has been little talk about that in the media, however.

Meanwhile, there is more bad news. According to a study, the Asian Brown Cloud, a vast toxic blanket of smoke from factories, power plants and wood or dung fires that hangs over South Asia, is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt. While there is a way to tackle the problem–Asian countries need to to find alternatives to fuels such as coal, diesel, wood and dung–there is little evidence that steps will be taken towards this anytime soon. More on the Asian Brown Cloud here.

Update: According to the UN, more than 15 million people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh are facing a “health crisis” if food and medical aid to south Asia’s flood victims is not rapidly stepped up. And here is the news in pictures.

Further Update: The Rockefeller Foundation says it will invest $70 million over the next five years to help Asian cities and African farmers withstand floods, droughts and other global warming hazards.

If you want to move to another country, consider Munich. A Monocle study of the world’s 20 most liveable cities has named Munich, Germany’s Die Weltstadt mit Herz (global city with a heart) and home of its legendary Oktoberfest, number one. Apart from great infrastructure, low crime, plenty of beer and the best electric lighting in Europe, Munich also offers august soil. Stalwarts like Kandinsky, Marc, Klee, Strauss, Ibsen and Mann have called Munich home at some point.

The Danes can take a bow. Copenhagen, Denmark, is at second place with factors such as efficient public transport, the extension at the city’s airport, a well developed bicycle network, the café culture, and design and creativity contributing to the win.

Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, is third on the list. Known for its safety and high quality of life, Zurich usually comes out tops in surveys of this kind. Having the highest number of public baths in the world can’t hurt either.

Also in the top 10 are Tokyo, Vienna, Hel Sinki, Sidney, Stockholm, Honolulu and Madrid.