Tag #125310 - Interview #97653 (Rebeka Evgin)

I loved reading a lot but when I was into books trying to read them with the light from these lamps at night time, my mother used to say “are you going to become a bad woman, reading and reading all the time”.  It was believed that women would become knowledgeable by reading and be more open to the outside world by that knowledge.  In short, having girls with open minds was not a desirable thing.  A very shrewd girl would not obey her family at first and then her husband.  She will become independent and then go off the correct path, it was believed.  I really loved reading novels but my mother would always turn off the night light.

In our house the floors were made of wood.  This wood was called planks.  Starting at the age of 10, mopping this wood was my chore.  The floors would be scrubbed by brush, and after the dirt was cleared, would be painted with yellow paint.  It would become bright yellow.  Our relationship with our neighbors was very good.  The biggest pastime of those days were visits to neighbors and relatives anyways.  The children would visit with them too.  It becomes very hot in Adana in summer.  We would sleep on the balconies in summer.  Our balconies on the upper floors were almost interlocking with the balconies of the house next door.  The young people in Adana never looked at us with bad intentions.  They would call us sister [“baci”-- a term used in Turkish to address people who are not siblings which indicates that they are considered as siblings], and loved us like siblings.  They even protected us in the market. Girls and boys forming relationships was frowned upon.  It was not correct to talk with not only Muslim young men, but with Jewish young men also.