{"id":65497,"date":"2013-02-15T08:24:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T06:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=65497"},"modified":"2014-01-08T00:23:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T22:23:03","slug":"turkey-and-islam-dress-tests-the-economist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/02\/15\/turkey-and-islam-dress-tests-the-economist\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey and Islam: Dress tests | The Economist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey and Islam<\/p>\n<p>Dress tests<\/p>\n<p>New frontiers in Turkey\u2019s culture wars<\/p>\n<p>Feb 16th 2013 | ISTANBUL |From the print edition<\/p>\n<p>They hide you<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-65498\" alt=\"20130216_EUP002_0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/20130216_EUP002_0.jpg\" width=\"290\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/20130216_EUP002_0.jpg 290w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/20130216_EUP002_0-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/>\u201cSTAR TREK\u201d, said one commentator. \u201cThey may as well wear a burqa,\u201d huffed another. Supposedly chaste new uniforms for Turkish Airlines (THY) cabin attendants have triggered mirth and horror in the cyberworld. They have also sharpened debate about creeping conservatism under the mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) government. With its embrace of overt piety and family values, AK is more like America\u2019s religious right than Iran\u2019s mullahs. But secularists feel beleaguered.<\/p>\n<p>THY\u2019s ankle-length caftans for women and silver-brocade coats for men seem impractical. Dilek Hanif, who designed them, insisted they were \u201cjust several among many other proposed models\u201d. THY backed her claims with photos of more sensible gear. The carrier, which now flies to 219 destinations, was last year voted \u201cBest Airline Europe\u201d by Skytrax, an airline quality-ranking programme, for a second time.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh controversy erupted when it emerged that THY has scrapped booze on all domestic flights save six (including Ankara and Istanbul). Eight foreign destinations in Africa and the Middle East have also gone dry. \u201cWe are globally sober,\u201d tweeted Bulent Mumay, a journalist for Hurriyet, in a dig at THY\u2019s advertisement, \u201cGlobally Yours\u201d. The airline justifies its move on the ground that there is insufficient demand by Anatolian and other Muslim passengers.<\/p>\n<p>More likely, some say, it wants to please Turkey\u2019s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a militant teetotaller, who while mayor of Istanbul led a campaign to scrap drink in municipally run restaurants. Yet like the similarly pious president, Abdullah Gul, Mr Erdogan tolerates drinking on his official jet. Even so, many Turks pander to his piety. At a fashion fair in December organisers removed naked mannequins before his arrival. Producers of \u201cThe Magnificent Century\u201d, a popular mini-series about Suleiman the Magnificent, shrank his beloved wife Roxelana\u2019s cleavage after Mr Erdogan complained that \u201cour Ottoman forebears are being misrepresented\u201d. After ten years of AK rule Turkey is richer, more powerful\u2014and less fun.<\/p>\n<p>From the print edition: Europe<\/p>\n<p>via Turkey and Islam: Dress tests | The Economist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey and Islam Dress tests New frontiers in Turkey\u2019s culture wars Feb 16th 2013 | ISTANBUL |From the print edition They hide you \u201cSTAR TREK\u201d, said one commentator. \u201cThey may as well wear a burqa,\u201d huffed another. Supposedly chaste new uniforms for Turkish Airlines (THY) cabin attendants have triggered mirth and horror in the cyberworld. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":65498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[589,7411],"class_list":["post-65497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-thy","tag-women-in-islam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}