Turkey: Kicked out of Maltepe Park Mall

Funny story today.

I find Turkey to be an incredibly friendly place and the people are warm towards us. But the posh shopping malls are trying really hard to look Western so any middle aged person that does not fit the stereotypical Western business dress code arouses suspicion.

So guess what happened . . .. Debbie, my American wife of 28 years, was told to leave the Carrefour Maltepe Park Mall today. She asked why and the head of security (we assume, since the guards at the door had to bring in the big guns) said she was making the 'guests feel uncomfortable' because of how she looked.

How do I look", she asked, "what exactly is offensive about me?"

"Your dress!"

Its true Debbie was wearing an Indian looking dress and Keen sandals. She does have a hippy look but its not offensive or really much different than what a lot of Western ladies wear.

"And your hair, your dreadlocks".

Ahhhh the dreads???

And so Debbie was told that she and her whole team/family (we have two kids with us) cannot come back to the mall anymore.

This was a problem for me because one of the cafes at the mall has blazing fast wifi and I had already scheduled a skype appointment with a friend who wants my advice on a multi-million dollar land acquisition in New Zealand. Luckily, this cafe has a side entrance so I could sneak in to skype and grab a capuccino.

But the story continues.

After one or two hours, the police came over to our camper van which is across the road from Maltepe Shopping Center, due to the height restriction of their parking lot. They wanted to see my passport and asked what I was doing here. Shopping, I told them. We are loading up necessities before driving to Africa where things are harder to find.

Luckily I was dressed NOT in Indian gear but was wearing my Italian shirt and Italian jeans and Nordstrom spectators, all of higher quality that most things in the mall (although I confess I bought them all at charity shops in USA and Czech Republic). Not saying I looked like a Frankfurt banker with my shirt hanging out but I at least looked somewhat respectable and clean. The police, who I find very friendly in Turkey, were happy with us and told us we could stay there.

But after another hour, 12 more policemen arrived in 3 cars and grilled the family. They were accompanied by Marko from Slovenia who was caught sitting on a bench outside the mall, without shoes on.

I was out at the time (shopping again) but they eventually left, and seemed happy with us. Nice people, the Turkish police - just doing their job, probably responding to a typical "Help us! Hippies have invaded our posh mall!!!" kind of request.

Whats up with these mall security people?????????????

So here I am at the cafe, so far so good. I haven't been kicked out yet.

I also had to sneak in to Carrefour by the back entrance, lest the guards at the front recognised me, to buy some supplies for tonight's pizza. We LOVE Carrefour and as we travel around Europe, we are always thrilled to see the sign which for us signals our most traditional family dinner - Carrefour chicken, French bread and mayonnaise. Tonight the mission was ham and pinapple. Tomorrow I hope to buy a printer so we can print off documents when needed at the various borders, and Carrefour has a $30 Canon!

No hard feelings regarding the shopping thing but it does make me sad that parts of Turkey are moving towards the materialism of the West and not towards more attractive elements on offer. The market is the new god. Brand names are the new idols.

I started reading Islam Without Extremes two days ago, a well thought out book by Mustafa Akyol on Turkey's history with Islam and its current turmoil as it finds a new identity. He says that, just as Saudi Arabia have religious police (Mutawwa) to monitor people and correct 'un-Islamic" behaviour, so Turkey has its share of "secularism police" to keep the country moving in the appropriate direction. Mustafa also argues that Islam in Turkey was a religion of the poor but since the free market revolution of the 80's, "it has become the religion of urban entrepreneurs and professionals. He even calls them "emerging Islamic calvinists", with a nod to Max Weber.

Yeah. Sounds right to me.

I emailed the author when I bought the book this week to let him know I was reading it and might like a chat about it once its finished. Now we have more to talk about.