Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates by Üstün Bilgen-Reinart

Author:Üstün Bilgen-Reinart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2007-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

“The word Muslim means ‘one who has surrendered,’ ” Şerife Katırcı, a born-again Muslim writer, tells me in the tiny lobby of her one-room day-care centre called Altın Nesil (Golden Generation) in a former squatter neighbourhood of Ankara, now full of apartment blocks.

Şerife has dark eyes in a stern face with no trace of makeup, and her slow movements exude authority. She is covered in an Islamic hijab (a draping kerchief or turban that covers the neck and forehead) and jilbab (a loose floor-length gown that hides the lines of the body), which makes me think of a mother superior at a Montreal convent. Şerife has written books about women’s lives. Her first work, an autobiographical novel, describes a woman’s search for meaning, her repeated failures in life, and her discovery of a true identity in Islam.

“Obedience to the will of God means total surrender,” she says. “It brings us inner peace, trust, and salvation.” Şerife’s slender teenage daughter, also covered from head to toe, takes a break from the pre-school children to whom she is teaching English and serves me tea and butter biscuits.

Şerife was born in Kayseri (ancient Roman Caesarea) to a traditional family and was married at seventeen. She gave birth to three children who died from crib deaths, one after the other. “I felt hopeless,” she tells me. “I collapsed spiritually and emotionally.”

In that state of despair, she came across an interpretation of the Koran — a flicker of light. “I bought a Turkish version of the Koran next, and I was flooded with light. I felt it was written for me.” She speaks softly and slowly, pausing from time to time as if to assess my reaction. I sense she is wondering about my own religious beliefs, but she doesn’t ask.

Now she finds secular activities meaningless. “Women’s superficial talk about clothes, shopping, or TV programs is unbearable to me. Islamic cover makes me feel clean, free of men’s attentions.”

It is late afternoon on a sunny spring day. While we speak, mothers, none of whom wear Islamic garb, arrive to pick up their children. They all warmly thank Şerife while they help their children put on their shoes and coats.

“Do you teach religion here?” I ask.

“We start all activities with the name of God, but we leave religious education to the families.”

“But how can an intelligent woman accept Islamic restrictions?”

“What restrictions? Islamic laws set women free to be true to their natures. I am free to be creative and I am free to run a business. Islam shelters me from competition with men, and from games of seduction. I am grateful for that protection.”

She then describes the world of justice, security, and certainties that she longs for. No hunger, no violence, no immorality. “Some people say it sounds unreal, like a myth. But it’s the material world with all its suffering and strife that’s fleeting and unreal. We have no choice but to submit to the will of God. Isn’t the pain that we inflict on

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