To viking woman re respect and compassion

Submitted by yasemin (Canada), May 12, 2008 at 18:45

I hope women who come to this website seeking advice heed our words because we've both seen the underbelly of these cultures.

It always amazed me that a culture that supposedly loves children so much can turn around and abuse them so badly. I watched in shock as a mother slapped her child across the face but couldn't intervene. The hypocrisy made me sick - neighbors who went through elaborate greeting rituals, smiling and kisses on cheeks and yet if one of them were being beaten, i know the others would turn a deaf ear to it. I used to pass the old women every day on the way to have breakfast - they would look me up and down with a disgusted sneer.

What a joke - i was wearing more clothes than their young women dressed in skin tight lycra. I was the outsider and not even a burka could make them like me. I adore istanbul but i knew that for them, i would always be the foreigner, the infidel, the whore. The two faced religion was abhorrent to me - they will run you over with their cars without a twinge of guilt.

As for the protection order, the prosecutor demanded proof that my husband broke it. Fair enough but a lot of the abuse is hidden. Only the fact that my favorite cafe manager knew the prosecutor ( another district ) along with a doctor's report made it possible to start criminal charges. I want a witness for this trial but i know there is no Turk who would help me. I've asked amnesty if they have a free body to attend just so i can see if the trial is biased.

As for their attitude towards americans, it stinks. They believe the USA is funding kurdish terrorism and students in my class denounced the U.S.. I tried to be the one to dispell these myths but prejudice is their favorite weakness.

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