Turkish Economy, Headscarfs and Ex-pats

Turkish Economy, Headscarfs & Ex-Pats

Day 3

Today we woke up at 11:30 and rushed for a lunch date with my Turkish friend. This time we took the metro, which is 10 steps from our apartment and found it to be not only faster and cheaper ($1.50) but a very clean and civilized way to travel. Nazli, who had previously worked for me as my statistician is an amazing woman who came to United States for a post doctorate at Stanford at 23 years of age with a 2-year-old child. She lived in US for 20+ years, had a productive career and raised 2 children who live in Seattle. I was lucky to work with her for a year before she left for Istanbul that is her childhood home and where her mother still lives. She is now professor at the University of Koc conducting a longitudinal study of families and teaching statistics and development. She picked us up from the metro and drove us to the Sariyer district for a wonderful lunch (gozlome – type of crepe with cheese inside) at a place overlooking a fortress and the Bospherous Strait. This strait is infamous because it runs north from the Black Sea to the south the Sea of Marinara splitting the middle of Istanbul into the Asian side and the European side. Suspension bridges span the Strait connecting the two sides.

We had many questions for Nazli about the Turkish economy, the women, the President, her work and her nanny experiences having had twins after her move back to Istanbul.  Here are a few things we learned.  The fertility rate is 2.1 and Turkey has the youngest population the world with 50% of the population less than 17 years of age.  Turkish employment is good and the economic difficulties faced by Europe and US have not really affected Turkey. While Turkey originally sought to be part of the European Union perhaps now they are glad to be independent. The President has popular public support and because of this has managed to abolish the death penalty, prohibit smoking in public places in a place where everyone seems to smoke, stop prohibition of wearing head scarfs in public places and allow women legally to report rape to the police. I asked about the reason for their thriving economy and was told that it was due to trading with exRussian countries that have no industry and need products such as appliances, which they trade for gas. Ex-Russians comprise a large number of ex-pats employed in Turkey with a sponsor because of their cheap labor.  Originally many ex Russians came to work on tourist visas and then got fines when they left country for overstaying their visa time. However ironically if caught in Turkey without an up-to-date visa they were not fined and deported back on a plane for free. Consequently many decided it was more economically advantageous to bribe police to catch them (paid 70% of penalty fine). Now they are encouraged to get a visa because they get health insurance and if they are deported for visa violation they cannot come back for 3 years. Even this has not deterred them for many who are deported get divorces at home and apply again for visas with a different name. Then they come to Turkey and remarry after they have a visa!  We asked Nazli about exploitation of ex-pats and she said that she personally pays her nanny who lives in her home $700 per month plus her nanny has no living expenses and in her home country she would earn substantially less ($125). As we have learned in other countries including US, ex-pats take jobs that are not wanted by citizens and make more money than in their home country. Their treatment and exploitation varies depending on who hires them.

I asked about the veil/head scarf issue and whether there was an upswing in wearing of headscarfs with the prohibition removed and the President’s wife as a model for wearing a headscarf.  Nazli replied that there are a lot of flavors of headscarves. For some wearing a headscarf makes women more eligible for attracting a husband because wearing a scarf indicates they are virgins, which is desirable (but not necessarily true). For others wearing a headscarf could be a fashion statement or an identity statement; even the way they tie the scarf tells what particular group they belong to such as upper class or lower class. 

Generally aristocracy rejects the headscarf. Nazli said that since the law to take off the headscarf when working as a public servant was eased by the new president there are still only 3 women out of 6000 at the University of Koc who wear a headscarf. 

After this very interesting lunch we proceeded to view the Fortress of Rumeli with 15 towers, which we had been our backdrop during lunch.  This fort has spectacular views of the Bosphorous.  









From there we walked to the Tulip Gardens which is a huge park where many local families with children were having lunch at picnic tables and enjoying this sunny and warm day. Here I noticed many women wearing headscarfs and long coats and looking incredibly hot in this 70+-degree weather. This excursion was followed by having a baklava, which is the best I’ve ever had and I’m feeling the need to continue this search. 


Onward to catch a ferry across the Bospherous but first I have been told by Nazli that it is a must to have a simit from a street vendor and so I comply. A simit is a cross between a bagel and a pretzel, which is dipped, in grape molasses and sesame seeds before baking. It is fresh, crunchy, delicious and I envision would be even better with cream cheese or tomatoes or honey and especially butter.  Our boat ride is beautiful and we see many large, expensive New Orleans style houses along the water’s edge. 




A relaxing day but we take another harrowing cab ride (without seat belts) back to our apartment driving at times on the wrong side of the road as our driver tries to dodge heavy traffic by going in narrow side streets. We get out of cab early and walk the rest of the way and I stop to buy some gorgeous looking tomatoes and strawberries. These seem to have so much more flavor here.

After some further tourist planning at our apartment for future adventures we set out at 9 pm for dinner at a restaurant recommended by Seth’s highschool friend Reid who lived here for 2 years.  This was the best restaurant yet with great humus and salads ~ two foods I think I could live on forever. John of course has bass fish; I have lamb chops and Seth has potato ravioli. We are all happy and stay up until after midnight which we will undoubtedly regret in the morning.