"Suicide Girls": Orhan Pamuk's Snow and the Politics of Resistance in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract

In light of the current debate over the Islamic headscarf in Turkey, this article argues that women's bodies, caught in the crosshairs of political strife between state forces and fundamentalist groups, have become sites of a debate that often ignores the voice of women. Current suicide statistics within the country mirror the increased number of suicides among the "headscarf" girls in Orhan Pamuk's Snow. By looking closely at the suicides of the female characters, specifically Teslime, and criticism regarding veiling and resistance, the article posits that these women have found suicide to be their only tenable form of resistance in a state system plagued by an anxiety about change and that otherwise ignores their choices. In noting the parallels between a literary and sociological crisis, the article works toward recognizing the struggle of women to have their voices heard, without their eliminating themselves through suicide in the process.Keywords: fundamentalism / Islamic headscarf / Orhan Pamuk / suicide / Turkey / women's resistance In May 2007, the news told of demonstrations taking place in Istanbul. The national election was six weeks away, and the country showed tension over the looming exercise in democracy. The ruling Justice and Development party, or the AK, nominated Abdullah Gul, arousing much worry on the part of those in support of Kemal Atatürk's vision of the secular state. These secularist activists, many of them women, feared, first, a presidency by a man who, among other public exhibitions of religious belief, is married to a woman who wears the hijab,