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Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, an activist for women's and minority rights, hails the opposition's victory in Istanbul's municipal election. A " historic moment ", according to her, while much remains to be done in the country of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's most-read writer, who publishes a new novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World , is once again under threat of prosecution. Interview.
From our correspondent in Turkey,
RFI: For the first time in 25 years, the opposition has just won the Istanbul City Hall against the party of President Erdogan. How important is this victory ?
Elif Shafak: This is a very big win. This is a historic moment, not only for the Istanbul Democrats, but for all those in Turkey who believe in democracy, diversity and coexistence.
The new mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, reiterated during his campaign that partisanism and identity politics were the main enemies of democracy. Do you agree ?
Absolutely. As a writer, as a fiction writer who cares deeply about words, I think that every political, cultural, social change starts with language. For a very long time in Turkey, the only audible rhetoric - that of the government, that of the party in power - is a populist, masculinist rhetoric that divides society into "us" versus "them" camps. Ekrem Imamoglu did the opposite. He talked about coexistence, diversity, uniting people around shared values. It is extremely important.
This also contrasts with the populist discourse booming elsewhere in the world, especially in Europe and the United States ...
I think the victory of Ekrem Imamoglu is an important event for progressives around the world, at a time when many Democrats are wondering if we should not, to win, be more populist than populists. Ekrem Imamoglu proved that we did not need to get into this game. Peaceful, democratic language and peace can be used and people will understand because they are tired of hearing only anger.
In addition, imagine a country in which most media are controlled by one voice, where the opposition is inaudible. And yet, in this country, many people continue to vote against the government. I think that also shows the complexity of Turkey.
You speak regularly on political topics. Why ?
If you're an author from a country like Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Venezuela ... where democracy is hurt, I think you do not have the luxury of saying, " I'm going to close the door and write my stories, I do not want to talk about what's happening behind my window . " You have to worry about it. And I'm a feminist. And one of the wonderful things that feminism taught me is that politics is not just about parties or Parliament. There is politics in our daily lives. Sometimes, when you write about sexuality, it's also about politics. If you set the policy so broadly, you can not be apolitical. What I find interesting is that after 2016 - after Brexit, the Trump vote and the rise of populist nationalism in Europe - many European and American writers also began to talk about politics and felt the need to be more engaged.
But the risk is not the same depending on whether you talk about politics in a European democracy or in a country like Turkey ?
There is no freedom of expression in Turkey. Not only interviews, but also works of fiction, novels can be judged. I experienced this in 2006, when my novel La bastard from Istanbul was sued. I was accused of insulting "Turkishness" and my lawyer had to defend in court the comments of my fictional Armenian characters! After a year, I was acquitted. But I had to live for a year and a half with a bodyguard. Currently, I am targeted by another investigation for "crime of obscenity" because I write on topics such as sexual harassment, the marriage of minors, gender violence ... Police went to the offices of my office. publishing house to grab my novels as part of this investigation. It's a difficult context.
In addition to these undemocratic laws, there are robots and trolls on social networks that circulate sentences of my novels or distort them without having read the book, without understanding that it is a work of fiction . There is something very sad about this because Turkey is a country with a serious problem of sexism, sexual harassment, gender inequality, homophobia. It is a country where cases of gender-based violence have officially increased by 1400% in the last eight years. We need to talk about these topics. But instead of opening shelters for abused women and children, instead of changing patriarchal laws, authorities target fiction writers who dare to write about these topics.