Can We Pray Anywhere We Want?

What prompted this blog?

It’s this column, that complains about the lack of prayer rooms (Mescid) at my Alma Mater, Bosphorus University.

The author is among the new cohort of pious, vocal and dare-I-say liberal women journalists, who came under the spotlight after the headscarf protests in Turkish universities in 2007-8.

Full disclosure: I supported her and the free headscarf movement wholeheartedly at the time. I believe women should not be made to choose between their education and their religious beliefs. It’s ludicrous for the state to micromanage people’s clothing, especially when they’re mature adults!

But this time, I beg to disagree…

South Campus, BU

What’s the issue?

Bosphorus University has multiple campuses: South, North, Hisar, Ucaksavar and Kilyos Campuses. South is the oldest campus, but most departments, classrooms, the library, dorms, university bookstore, etc are up on the North campus. There is a small mosque right at the entrance of the North campus.

Students who observe the 5-times per day prayer rule of Islam, want a designated space in the South campus for this purpose.

The columnist above, who is also an Alumnus of Bosphorus university (Sociology), claims that this is an “ontological right”. Furthermore, she says 10 minutes between classes is not enough time to go up to the mosque on North campus. Therefore, the University has to accommodate this demand, and provide a prayer room at the South Campus.

Now, lets be frank:

The only times the students would need a prayer room during class times would be the noon & afternoon prayers, and possibly the evening (in winter times).

Depending on the time of the year, there are 2 to 5 hour windows for Muslims to complete each of these prayer duties.

Noon & afternoon prayers are not short. They have 4 parts, as opposed to 2 parts in the morning & 3 parts in the evening.

Even if there were a dedicated prayer room in the South, 10 minutes between classes is NOT sufficient time. You’ll need to run over there, walk up or down stairs (always stairs, NO ELEVATORS in South!), wash your hands-face-feet, get yourself back in order, line up, concentrate on the prayer, rush all the verses, salute, dress up & pack, and run over to the next class. Again, numerous stairs obstructing your way… In short, prayer-in-10-mins argument does not pass the reality check.

Aside from the unrealistic nature of a 10-minute prayer break, there is the issue of “ontological” rights to prayer.

I support a wide range of rights and causes, all the way from rights to express your native identity & language, religious duties, to rights of workers to a decent wage and parental rights to provide for their new-born babies without the fear of losing their jobs, to free expression of ideas, students’ right to protest peacefully, sexual rights, handicapped people’s access to services, etc, etc…

However, I would never be able to line up these rights hierarchically and say: “Hey, you know, a mother’s right to paid leave for 12 months is an ‘ontological’ right! I just gave birth to a baby! I need to take care of him/her. It’s about life & death, no? Give me my high order right and back off, you foolish advocates of lower level rights!”

Tell that to the workers and union leaders in Argentina, who were dumped into the Atlantic by the military regime, for fighting for a decent pay and decent living.

Tell that to the activists in gay movements, who are still brutally beaten up by law enforcement and ostracized by their societies in many parts of the world, for trying to live a life that is true to their personality.

Tell that to all the indigenous and minority populations, who have been fighting for decades if not centuries, to be accepted as who they are, with equal rights and dignity.

I don’t understand why people can be so utterly self-righteous, when it comes to religious rights. Why should religion be an ontological right, triumphing over all else? Why should one’s self-identity, motherhood, or demands for a decent wage in exchange for their hard labor would count LESS THAN religious rights?

Lets leave ontology for a minute, and go back to basic empirical facts:

South campus is prime real estate no matter how you look at it. The historic heart of the campus is protected by numerous zoning laws, most famous of being the Law for the Protection of Bosphorus View. Practically, this means the university cannot develop the area it sits on.

Kilyos Campus, BU

There are innumerable competing interests and demands on campus. The English prep school (YADYOK) for instance –that every student has to attend unless s/he passes an extremely hard proficiency exam- has NO SPACE to put classrooms. So it ships all its students across the city to the Kilyos campus, which is essentially a beach town along the Black Sea! These poor kids cannot see the marvelous campus they’re entitled to study for a whole year! All they have in the name of Bosphorus University is a long beach and cold winds from the mad Black Sea beating up their walls. Oh, and lots of humidity and mold…

Second, office space is scarce in South. Multiple faculty members with Ivy League degrees –literally- share tiny offices cramped under sloping roofs lines.

Third, regular capacity cannot meet the demand. Under pressure from Turkey’s Higher Ed. Council (YOK) to increase enrollment, BU is having a hard time to seat and accommodate its ever-growing number of students. Hence, every bit of space, including under the stairs & old closets, are used for something, at times very creatively: toilets under the stairs, copy rooms & coffee rooms inside closets, etc… A dorm room in South Campus is the most precious thing a student can get in his/her entire college life! I had one, shared with 11 (in writing: eleven!) roommates. It was totally worth it, despite the awful metal bunk-beds, non-stop cacophony and insurmountable mess.

1st Girls Dormitory, South Campus, BU

My point: please stop demanding special treatment, and pretending that this is the most compelling case for space on South campus.

BU is the most liberal university in Turkey that not only welcomes students from all walks of life, but also helps them flourish. It is a rare gem, given the suffocating atmosphere in other universities across the country. 

Let us all be reasonable, and NOT beat the tree that bears good fruit.

The freedom loving, controversy-weary Academic Mommy

Disneyland, Family Fun, and the Latest Stage of Advanced Capitalism

During the Spring Break, we took our son to Disneyland in California. It was my first visit, as well as his. We were equally thrilled by the experience.

I am not a huge fan of artificial environments created for mass entertainment. Years ago when I first visited Las Vegas, the place utterly depressed me.

Maybe all the training towards a PhD makes us academics ill-disposed to the idea of popular entertainment. It’s as if the PhD diploma condemns us to watching boring artsy movies and pretending to get the deep dark meaning behind the strawberry scene… anyways, this entry is not about anti-intellectualism…

When in Vegas, I remember finding the place extremely tacky and fake. The air of over-the-top commodification bothered me so much!... It seemed like anything and everything was for sale. Especially the human beings! The amount of in-you-face human flesh became so unbearable for me that in order to tolerate those few days in Vegas, I decide to have a split personality disorder. Here is how it worked:

I imagined myself as an anthropologist doing fieldwork amongst this “weird” clan that was discovered in the deep Nevada desert. They slept during the day, stayed up all night. They lured and tricked the weaker members of their community into loosing their assets in labyrinths called the “casinos”. They liked to display bodies of the good-looking members of their clan in shows called “Crazy Horse”. They also liked to make pathetic models of the objects they liked from the civilized world, like the Eiffel Tower, Venice canals and the pyramids of Egypt. It felt like an extended nightmare with lots of glittery lights, dancing fountains and bouncing boobies…

Because of the rather bad taste on my palate from the Vegas trip, I was hesitant to go to the Disneyland, a.k.a “the happiest place on earth!” However, as guilty liberal parents, we didn’t want to deprive our only son of this experience, because of our moral and intellectual reservations. So, we went. And I’m glad we did!

Aside from spending some wonderful 10 hours, this visit churned the little political economist in me!

The moment we approached the parking lot, we were shepherded by a small army of “crew members”. These employees were all dressed up in the cutest uniforms. They would handle the crowds in the most efficient way, without making them feel rushed at all.

I swear thousands would pass through the main gates at every few minutes, yet the park displayed no signs of overcrowding, chaos or disrepair. Everything looked in great shape, despite the fact that the park was opened in 1955! The conditions and safety measures all around seemed impeccable!

I remember in Ankara, we took our son to a public recreational area in Golbasi once.  He still has a scar on his forehead from the playground there.

I imagine any place in the world with this many children and their overbearing parents would easily turn into a “Lord of the Flies” scene. But not in Disneyland!

The pricey ticket gives you access to all the rides, but the lines are long. People do wait their turns in a patient and orderly manner. Again, the “crew” works magic when it comes to shepherding the crowds in and out of the rides.

And the rides: They are amazing! The first one we went was “It’s a Small World” in the Mickey’s Toontown. It had little dolls from all around the world dressed in the most stereotypical fashion (i.e. geishas from Japan, belly dancers from some magic Arab lands, tulip holding, clog wearing dolls from Holland, etc…). Not much creativity, one might say. But, as we were gliding on a small sandal from one scene to the next, these dancing little dolls just mesmerized us.

I was amazed by the amount of craftsmanship needed to built and program these little dolls to dance and sing in such harmony. Contrary to Vegas, this constructed space of entertainment felt so real! And this sense of a “magic reality” followed us everywhere. It felt as if we were inside a three dimensional cartoon!

So, where is political economy in this?

If you’ve read thus far, bear with me a bit more. Here it comes:

When Disneyland opened in 1955, it had about 1 million visitors. Last year, it had almost 16 million! Tickets are around $80 a piece.  That makes $1.28 billion in revenues just from the entrance fees! Aside from that, you spend quite a bit of money inside on food, drinks, silly hats and other memorabilia.  We spent about $150.

I could not find the numbers but it must take armies of carpenters, puppet makers, gardeners, genitors, mechanics, engineers and maintenance people to keep that place up and running. From 8 am till midnight!

Seeing Disneyland consolidated my opinions about the dominance of the US in service sector. Essentially, Disneyland is all about selling a fictitious reality, a dream. And 16 million visitors each year are willing to pay for it!

California itself is the capital of this huge service sector. It is also the heart of the global entertainment sector. The studios –big and small- the artists –big and small- are the bastions of this empire. Tourism is completely catering towards the entertainment industry, feeding into the magical image of California and the America it creates.

After seeing Disneyland and California, I thought the US need not worry about the demise of its manufacturing sector. Let the Mexicans build the cars and the refrigerators. The Americans would do just fine, by creating magical realities and marketing it across the world.

Unfortunately, all this glitter of the service sector hides a rather dark side. For every actor or producer that makes millions and lives in giant mansions, there are tens of thousands of low-wage stagehands, stunts, waitresses and cleaners that earn pitiful wages with little or no benefits.

Lucky me, I just came across some data that back up my observations. According to OECD statistics, the US had the highest share of low-wage jobs among advanced economies.

This is not surprising, given the increasing predominance of the service sector in the US and its extremely inequitable wage structure. There is an astronomically wide gap between the leading artists and the stagehands. Similarly in banking, finance and insurance sectors, the wage gaps between the top and bottom are outrageous. Whereas in the manufacturing sector, the gap between engineers or administrators and the shop-floor workers had never been that wide.

Moral of this story: Take you kid to Disneyland, if you have the chance. It is a worthy experience, and the happiness and gratitude in your child’s eyes is priceless.

However, keep an eye on the grinding wheels of the service sector as well. Your happiness comes at the expense armies of low-wage workers.

Hopefully, we will be lucky enough to see another Great Transformation and labor mobilization in our lifetimes, like the early decades of Industrial Revolution. Similar to the 8-hour workdays and the child labor bans of the olden times, we need a new set of labor laws. These should provide a fair distribution of wealth that is generated by this new, post-modern economic sector.

The service sector might be the new locomotive of national economies, but it should take care of its constitutive components in a just, fair and equitable manner.

Wishing you all fun and pleasant lives as in Disney cartoons,

The California-enamored Academic Mommy