Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

Dear New American Friend,

Hello. Apparently, the Unites States and Turkey are much different. Our former leader, Ataturk (who was called the “father of the Turks”) has just recently passed away. Like your culture, when he was alive, we could wear much of the hats you wear. He also made some rules about hats in general; he said that this hat (which we can now wear), a fezz, was not allowed to be worn. The reason people were so angry about this rule was that since we are very religious and pray five times a day toward Mecca (holy city), we must have our heads touch the ground. Well, since most hats have a brim, every time our heads touched the floor we hit our heads! So, we made a hat without a brim. He decided to just ignore people’s wanting of it; not to be mean, but his real intention was to give us new ideas. BY that I mean we have worn these hats for a very long time. So I guess you would say, “Out with the old and in with the new.” That isn’t the only rule change he made; he also wanted to give women equal rights, voting, getting educated, getting rid of the veils that covered women’s faces, and even the right to do a job. I agreed with a lot of these rules (except for the fezz rule). Hopefully, soon, we will have a new leader. Bye for now.

Your new Turkish friend,

Pedro

(by Matthew M.)