Chemical Warfare of the Sexes

Mike Riggs | June 6, 2008

Turkey is frequently cited as the most (sometimes only) secular Muslim country, and therefore, the most Western. But then there's Turkey's Department of Women's Oppression:

"Women have to be more careful, since they possess stimulants," and they "have to be covered properly so as not to show their ornaments and figures to strangers."

Those are two of the controversial "dos" and "don’ts" given to Turkish women in the "Sexual Life" article that appeared last week on the website of Turkey’s Directorate on Religious Affairs, the Diyanet.

It added that if women have to communicate to the opposite sex they "should speak in a manner that will not arouse suspicion in one’s heart and in such seriousness and dignity that they will not let the opposite party misunderstand them."

Check out Contributing Editor Michael Young on Turkish secularism.