I read an article yesterday in The Age about a writer called Ipek Calislar who wrote a biography on Ataturk's wife Latife Usakizade. It proved popular enough to sell 90,000 copies but once she'd written the book she was prosecuted for the heinous crime of "insulting Ataturk".
You see, the book contained a story of how Ataturk escaped a veritable siege on his home by mutinous soldiers who desired to kill him. His wife came up with the idea to dress Ataturk up in women's clothes, namely the chador (head to toe Muslim garb), in order for him to be released with the women and children while his wife, dressed as Ataturk, continued to walk past the windows thus fooling the surrounding mutiny. After a spell Ataturk returned with his soldiers and disposed of the rabble. Bloody genius I thought!!! But I was apparently wrong!!
"The idea that the father of today's secular state a) did not laugh at death, b) dressed in women's clothing and c) religious drag at that, was too much," writes American journalist Andrew Finkel, who has lived in Istanbul for 20 years.'
And here I thought I was reading a masterful plan to fool a group of determined soldiers who wished to kill the man. If this story were told of Ned Kelly I'm sure we'd think it was brilliant. How different the world's cultures can be.
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