"To celebrate July 15 Martyr's Day, I began the morning by getting my period. I am celebrating the day by bleeding representing the martyrs blood."
Later, Itir Esen, 18, said "as an 18-year-old girl, I had no political agenda when I posted" and "I made this post with innocence during a sensitive time without thinking. As any one who feels like a victim during their menstruation, it does not contain any meaning other than 'it is July 15 and this is my situation right now.'"
I had to look up the term "Martyr's Day." My understanding is that the countries who use this term — including Turkey (and with the exception of Uganda) — use it to refer to military deaths. So the issue in this case is about disrespecting the military, not violating religious sensitivities.
The oldest meaning of the word "martyr" in English is specifically religious: "A person who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce faith in Christ or obedience to his teachings, a Christian way of life, or adherence to a law or tenet of the Church; (also) a person who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce the beliefs or tenets of a particular Christian denomination, sect, etc." (OED).
The other meanings of "martyr" in English (according to the OED) retain the original religious connotation. So: "In extended (esp. non-religious) contexts: a person who undergoes death or great suffering for a faith, belief, or cause, or (usually with to; also with of, for) through devotion to some object."
To my English-hearing ear, "martyr" isn't the right word for someone who fights within his country's military, no matter how much he believes in its cause, because the enemy isn't targeting him because he's adhering to his beliefs and he can't save himself by renouncing them. But obviously Turkey is not operating in English and its connection to Christianity is complicated.
Anyway, I'm heartened that a teenager in Turkey felt free enough to tweet about her period.
All the best to Itir Esen.
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Anyway, I'm heartened that a teenager in Turkey felt free enough to tweet about her period.
Turkey is losing freedoms quickly.
I don't find this heartening because the freedom is likely a remnant of how things used to be, not the direction things are going.
Bloody good post there. The Turks are Patriarchal with a Capital P. So anything she does or says will be seen as wrong. Women cannot talk like that.
Maybe it's time to dig out Fox's Book of the Martyrs again. That was a best seller in its day.
She was so mad when they took away her crown that you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes...
Look into the history of Turkey in WWI. Memed VI joined the Center Powers (Austria-Hungary and the German Empire) against France, Great Britain, and Russia. The war was presented to the Turks as a jihad. In Muslim belief, all soldiers who die in jihad are martyrs and go directly to Paradise, no waiting for Judgment Day. They even get there before Muhammad.
Though it's more info than I need to know.
I skimmed over your link to Turkey. If I were Turkish, I could find many good reasons to take the knee when they play the anthem.....The young woman's comment was more curious than anything else. I didn't think beauty contest winners had periods or bowel movements or even sweated. She's ruining the mystique.
Meh. Tweeting about her period in Turkey, not impressive.
However, Live-streaming tampon extraction might have caused cosmic earthquake in the caliphate.
The Turks are such friendly people, I am sorry to see their suffering. Oddly, it is the only country I have visited where, on average, the men are better looking than the women (Titus Alert!).
Hear hear, dreams... Having a period is no more "shameful" than not having one, and I'm glad to live in a time and place in which menstruation can be discussed without euphemism, but (and maybe this is just me being old now) I also don't choose to talk about my digestive processes with the general public. With my friends, sure.
So the question I have is, is the girl's tweet actually a freedom-of-expression thing or generational ambiguity (I wrote "confusion" at first but that's very judge-y) about the nature of intimacy?
One of the most costly and frustrating campaigns of that costly and frustrating war was an attempt by France and Britain to open a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea. To do that it would be necessary to gain military control of the Sea of Marmara and Constantinople. To gain control of the Sea of Marmara it was necessary to first gain control of the Dardanelles. To gain control of the Dardanelles the Entente needed to gain control of the Gallipoli peninsula. 552,000 dead, wound or struck down by disease, 250,000 of them Turks. All of them martyrs according to Islam. Turkey lost her empire in the Middle East, which set the stage for everything that has happened there since.
I don't want to hear about some young chippie's trials with her monthly bill any more than you want to hear about my father's bouts with constipation. What's the fascination? It's childish to think that something is interesting just because it involves you.
Oddly, it is the only country I have visited where, on average, the men are better looking than the women
Ever been to Italy. That is some strange. The men are generally attractive and the vast majority of woman are unattractive. But when the women are attractive they are unbelievably beautiful.
John Foxe was a Puritan in the days of Queen Elizabeth and her Spanis Catholic half sister, Mary.
Sister Mary was called BLOODY MARY, and burned Christians alive for sport. Foxe was a good historian who has been under attack
Ever since for telling truth about evil rulers. And pretending everybody did it does not change what those martyrs did that eternally changed England.
By allying his regime with Germany, Sultan Mehmet VI put Turkey on the losing side in WWI, thus destroying his claim to the caliphate and encouraging a revolution by the Young Turks, a secular reforming movement lead by Turkey's best general and a hero of the defense of Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal, aka Atatürk. The Young Turks, though supremely patriotic, denounced Turkey's participation in the war as a grave mistake. Furthermore, they suppressed the idea that the Great War was a jihad by arresting a few jihadist preachers and by permitting the Entente powers to erect monuments to their dead on the battlefields of Gallipoli, i.e. Muslim soil.
Lately, the Turks have fallen under the influence of an Islamist party calling itself the Justice and Development Party. As the 100th anniversaries of various battles against the French, British, and Russians have passed Recep Erdogan has used those observances to endorse the notion of Great War as a jihad against the infidels. Consequently, those monuments to French and British war dead (which include Indian and North African Muslims ironically enough) have been the target of vandals. General Lee is in good company, it seems.
I mean, period-tweeting, great.
Publicly discussing private medical situations, as a woman, great--empowering.
Comparing the normal discomforts and unpleasantness of life to life-ending suffering and pain undergone for some higher purpose (religious or military)...maybe not so great.
Sister Mary was called BLOODY MARY, and burned Christians alive for sport.
Though I'm no fan of Mary Tudor, I feel called upon by my respect for truth to counter the, shall we say, exaggerations of TradGuy.
Mary Tudor was a conservative monarch, which in the politics of 16th-century Europe meant adherence to Roman Catholicism. Her father, Henry VIII, never stopped being a Catholic, he just stopped being the Roman kind. Why he stopped is too complicated to discuss on this blog unless Professor Althouse wants to divert the dialogue in that direction, but let it be said that Mary was his legitimate heir by all the laws and traditions of the West after her half-brother Edward VI. Elizabeth, being the daughter of Anne Boleyn, was held to be a bastard by the conservative powers.
To say that Mary Tudor burned Christians for sport is a calumny (TradGuy has a reputation here for such flights from decency) and it could be said that Elizabeth, a politician generally admired as a hero of progressive Absolutism, the first enlightened monarch if you will, killed her share of Catholic Christians, though not by fire. A few died under torture on the rack.
"Anyway, I'm heartened that a teenager in Turkey felt free enough to tweet about her period."
It's disheartening, however, to learn that she is not nearly as free as she thought she was. And likely the powers that be are not done with disciplining her.
"Oh man I haven't eaten anything in a few hours and am so hungry--guess I'm celebrating Holocaust Awareness week early this year!"
"My girlfriend's making me visit her family this weekend--looks like I'm observing National Human Trafficking Awarness accurately, huh?"
Kinda inappropriate, right?
I know, I know, women talking about their bodies and their problems is empowering and that trumps any other concerns--I get it. But maybe implying that "Martyr's Day" is probably bullshit so it's ok to treat it disrespectfully isn't the best analytical approach. Maybe instead pick some topic that you think SHOULD be treated with respect and then ask if a similar type of tweet would still garner a "you go, girl!" response.
I scrolled down from the Janesville turkey-eater post and thought Miss Turkey was some strange Wisconsin festival princess.
I wonder if a proper translation of the day's name should be something like Memorial Day.
TMI, but I'm not going to rag on her about it.
I wonder if a proper translation of the day's name should be something like Memorial Day.
I doubt that. The attitude there is sufficiently different that such a translation would be inexact to the point of being misleading.
Does Turkey have a Pro-Choice culture?
She is mindful that menstruation is prima facie evidence of sacrifice. That must have triggered more than a few female chauvinists and sympathetic male chauvinists.
All of them martyrs according to Islam.
I should have said "all of the Turks were martyrs according to Islam". The rest were infidels or apostates (i.e. Muslim colonials fighting in British or French uniforms) bound for hell.
As any one who feels like a victim during their menstruation, it does not contain any meaning ...."
The singular they is used to cover the case a man out there who is also a victim of his menstruation.
"shehit" is the Turkish term I believe, from Arabic "shaheed" (taking a liberty to transliterate the sound), and its in common use for military casualties from Morocco to Pakistan.
It has nothing much to do with the Western concept of martyrdom, and of course there are very few Christians left in Turkey these days. There are international cultural influences independent of Western media.
Blogger Bad Lieutenant said...I don't want to hear about some young chippie's trials with her monthly bill any more than you want to hear about my father's bouts with constipation. What's the fascination? It's childish to think that something is interesting just because it involves you.
Except menses is a healthy, natural process while constipation is a disease. You should have compared it to hearing about your fathers completely satisfying, no effort dump... the greatest pleasure of the elderly.
Howard, 180 degrees off.
At least if my father is ill, there's a reason I have to hear about it, I'll have to fetch his senna or whatever. If he was telling me about GOOD BMs, one of us would have to leave this earth. Put it another way, do you want to read me talking about rubbing out a giggity? Forget Titus. Or rather, think of Titus.
Her father, Henry VIII, never stopped being a Catholic,
Yes he did. He was formally excommunicated by the Pope.
he just stopped being the Roman kind.
He became the head of the Church of England, often called the Anglican Church. To be fair, Anglicans are considered to be Catholic-lite.
Why he stopped is too complicated to discuss on this blog
No it's not. Henry wanted an annulment and the Pope wouldn't give him one.
Mary was his legitimate heir by all the laws and traditions of the West after her half-brother Edward VI.
Actually, if you were Catholic, Edward VI was not Henry's legitimate heir....only Mary was. Edward was just as much a bastard to Catholics as Elizabeth was.
Elizabeth, being the daughter of Anne Boleyn, was held to be a bastard by the conservative powers.
Catholic powers.
To say that Mary Tudor burned Christians for sport is a calumny
By all accounts she was a devout Catholic and was operating from religious conviction. However she did hold a lifelong resentment over the treatment she and her mother received after Henry VIII tossed Katherine aside.
Can't argue with that BL.
They are members of the Al Aqsa Fartyrs' Brigade.
Dancing and tooting is their line, with a penchant for being hoist on their own petard.
All English monarchs bear, among many other titles, the title of "Defender of the Faith". That title was awarded by the Pope to Henry VIII because in his days as a loyal Roman Catholic he wrote an essay criticizing Martin Luther.
The "Church of England" under Henry was theologically Roman Catholic, but politically it was the creature of the King. To consolidate his power and increase the wealth of his realm, Henry destroyed innumberable churches, monasteries, etc. He was as close as any monarch of his day to what we call totalitarian.
The Church of England, as a separate religious institution, really began under Elizabeth, as an established church, that everyone could (and was supposed to) attend. By the time her nephew became James I, a new religious movement had arisen in England (and Scotland), mostly influenced by Jean Calvin, and the established English church failed to make itself acceptable to many of these "Puritans", "Calvinists", "Congregationalists", and "Presbyterians", who considered the Church of England too "Roman". And thus arose the New England colonies in America, to which many of my ancestors immigrated and whose descendants. a century and a half later, started the revolution that gave birth to the United States.
"The attitude there is sufficiently different that such a translation would be inexact to the point of being misleading."
The current translation seems misleading in that "martyr" is so different in English that Martyr's Day sounds like a completely different thing. Of course, you're right that Memorial Day doesn't capture their different ideas about martyrs. Hm. Ponder, ponder.
Edward was just as much a bastard to Catholics as Elizabeth was.
Edward VI being born after the death of rightful Queen Catherine, true wife of Henry Rex, was thus legitimate born and a legitimate heir.
By the way, "martyr" is from the Greek meaning "witness." In particular, those who offered the ultimate witness with their lives.
Furthermore, as Tertullian said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
And Turkey's connection to Christianity is not all that complicated. It was the home of Eastern Christendom, Byzantium, until a bunch of murderous Muslim armies put it to the sword in the manner of another narcissistic, hedonist fraud (like Henry VIII) who made up his own religion and then killed people who opposed him.
"Why he stopped is too complicated to discuss on this blog.
"No it's not. Henry wanted an annulment and the Pope wouldn't give him one."
Yeah, it really is. It was also a power struggle over who was teh boss of the religious (priests, monks, etc.) of England. And, under the influence of Boleyn and Cranmer, it was, to a surprising extent, a legitimate religious conversion.
For a non-blog-length discussion, I recommend "Heretic and Believers," by Peter H. Marshall.
Seems like an accurate translation into English of the Muslim conception of "martyr" would be something like "fallen holy soldier" or "fallen soldier of Allah."
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