Not having Marie Claire lying around here in Kiev, though, I can’t comment either way on this piece. However, some of your statements about Maureen, the Belgian woman, did catch my eye.

I have to say, I feel that most people who actively turn to fundamentalism do lack purpose. Doesn’t mean that their circumstances and inner worlds aren’t complex as the next person’s, but if you crave that kind of rigidity, I think it’s almost a given that you’re trying to fill a pretty vast empty space. I don’t think there’s anything condescending about pointing that out. We all have empty spaces inside ourselves, and we fill them to the best of our ability. Religious fundamentalism offers a refuge in its relative simplicity. Most human beings, I would bet, feel better when they’re swept up in a singular fervour as opposed to dealing with doubt and temperance.

Judgment between religious fundamentalists and people who don’t adhere to their ways is a two-way street as well. I don’t doubt that the woman who told her daughter that Satan loves women in short skirts while staring at me (guess what I was wearing at the time?) felt really good about herself when making such a statement. Equally, I feel pretty good when I look at someone like that and recoil from the tedious minutiae of their rituals. We don’t, and can’t, embrace each other’s differences unquestioningly. Maybe the least we can do is leave each other alone.

The veneer of journalistic objectivity only takes you so far. Deep down inside, we all judge one another.

I did not get the impression whatsoever that the article was in anyway blaming Islam. Perhaps it was blaming radical Islamist political resurgency — but as we all know, this isn’t Islam, and these political movements do have a negative impact on women’s status and rights. So what’s the problem? Are we not allowed to denounce radical Islamist/fundamentalist movements now because its equivilant to blaming Muslims?

Also, the article DID discuss cultural issues, which you claim it hadn’t. And while it is arguable whether honor suicides are a “mainstream phenomenon” (what does that mean, exactly? Its just those nasty Kurds so its not ‘real’ Turkey?), I’m confused as to what your point is. We can only discuss abhorrent social phenomenon if its ‘mainstream’? Well that dude who killed the hijabimartyr in Germany wasn’t ‘mainstream’ so any article about that is racist towards white people? The logic does not make sense.

Honor killings and suicides are a huge issue in Turkey and I’m glad that Marie Claire decided to publish something about it.

Well, it would be nice to see Marie Claire do an article about a Muslim woman without the complete focus on her “Muslimness”. For instance, can we have a Muslim woman speaking about finances, fashion (without the overplayed ‘Muslim-women-are-pushing-the enevlope-by-wearing-colorful-scarves dynamic’), real estate or something else. Both articles I read about Muslim women still had the exotic, oppressed, trying-to-free subtext.

http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/international/iraqi-refugees-prostitutes-sex