Disgraceful


There’s a guy in Turkey – a lawyer – who’s pissed off that heavily pregnant women go out in public, because ew, gross.

Turkish lawyer and Sufi thinker Ömer Tuğrul İnançer has sparked a public outcry after telling state television station TRT 1 that it was immoral for pregnant women with huge bellies to reveal themselves in public.

“Announcing pregnancy with a flourish of trumpets is against our civility. [They] should not wander on the streets with such bellies. First of all, it is not aesthetic,” İnançer said. “After seven or eight months of pregnancy, future mothers go out their husbands by car to get some fresh air. And they go out in the evening hours. But now, they are all on television. It’s disgraceful. It is not realism, it is immorality.”

Yeah? What if some heavily pregnant woman doesn’t like Ömer Tuğrul İnançer’s face, and goes on tv to say he shouldn’t reveal himself in public, because it is not aesthetic?

There is not isolation against women in Islam, and being a mother is a gift, Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate said in a statement following the reactions.

“There is nothing like isolation against women in the religion. There is no isolation for pregnant women, either.  On the contrary, being mother is a gift,” the statement said, while still calling on pregnant women to dress modestly. “However, pregnant women should be more careful about their dressing – every woman should. [They] should not wear clothes showing their bellies or backs.”

It also emphasized that “we learn religion from the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad.”

Problem solved. No isolation for pregnant women. On the other hand, pregnant women should not wear clothes showing their bellies. If it turns out that isn’t possible for pregnant women – well what can you do? It’s all right there in  the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad.

H/t Torcant.

Comments

  1. Francisco Bacopa says

    What century is Turkey in? Try lots of places in the US in the early sixties. Teachers were not allowed to be pregnant when my mom was teaching. She hid her pregnancy with my brother until the end of the school year because she didn’t want to abandon her students. That was pretty difficult as she was almost five months along in late May.

    We think we are so much more advanced than other countries, but even 50 years ago we were almost as uptight. They say religion wants to take us back to the dark ages, but this video reminds us they only have to take us back 1935.

  2. says

    Francisco Bacopa – Actually pretty modern… Turkey is actually extremely secular. These people are treated with more “disrespect” by the locals than you think.

    Remember. Turkey is one of the first nations to stop persecuting the GLBT (Ottoman Empire 18th Century)..

    Remember, Turkey is highly secular thanks to it’s founder.

  3. Torcant says

    Avicenna – I think you are a victim of false propaganda.

    In a survey (“Radicalism and Extremism”) made by Prof.Dr.Yılmaz Esmer (Bahçeşehir University) in 2009, the following question was asked to 1715 individuals in 34 cities in Turkey:

    Who would you not want as a neighbor?

    Homosexuals – 87%
    People drinking alcohol – 72%
    People not believing in any religion – 66%
    Jews – 66%
    Christians – 52%
    An American Family – 43%
    People with daughters wearing shorts – 36%
    Of another race or skin color – 26%

  4. sc_89b14af992115cf6a4b7fae00b64476c says

    @4/@7 Torcant is right. It differs hugely where in Turkey you look. The rural population is religious and conservative. The more you go to the east the more backward the society, the support base of Erdogan, who is slowly boiling the secular frog. It’s a bit like the US only over a 90 degrees clockwise rotation. Secular Turks are primarily to be found in the cities in the western part of the country.The only thing that is really equally distributed among all Turks as far as I am aware is a national pride that even US rightwing nut jobs couldn’t hold a candle to.

    In this case where one religious braindead asshole is put in his place by a bunch of other religious assholes that are instituted by the state, it is perhaps a bit optimistic, for lack of a better word, to go boasting about Turkey’s secular institutions.

  5. Ant (@antallan) says

    So, the worst neighbours are a Jewish American family, with an adopted African-American atheist lesbian daughter who wears shorts and binge drinks…

    Another barrier to EU membership, perhaps.

    /@

  6. Tim Harris says

    And I have always thought that heavily pregnant women look extraordinarily beautiful…

  7. says

    I’m constantly amazed by how much these boy-men are afraid of women. Simply seeing a pregnant woman sends this one into a tizzy. Others start wetting their pants at the thought of a woman driving or showing more than her eyes. When I read stuff like this I hear a 4th grade boy’s voice in my head: “Girls! Ick!”

    It’s frustrating that no one has figured out how to turn this into real power for women.

  8. Happiestsadist, opener of the Crack of Doom says

    Well, see, it’s just horrifying to them because she’s so clearly had *looks around, whispers* S-E-X. Someone might have seen her in an immodest state once!

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