The Little Virgin Whore by KA SEFIKAMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If you are a non-Turkish girl in Turkey things can get really rough for you. By non-Turkish I mean Assyrian, Armenian, Greek and Kurdish. Minorities have no real rights in Turkey even if they are Muslim. If you ae a female it is even tougher. Women are treated like second class citizens. They are subject to abuse by males with no recourse to defend themselves. Females are exploited, harassed and even raped at times. Fathers beat their daughters and a female offspring is viewed as a burden.
The story starts off with Seren, a young Kurdish girl from Adana, Turkey who is studying at a college in Smyrna. After debates with her friends she graduates but none of her family even shows up. An Uncle Alp shows up though and pretends to have fatherly feelings toward her. When she returns to Adana, her abusive father can do nothing but curs her or being alive and her enabling mother just goes along with it. After a few days her father throws her out of the house. Seren goes back to Smyrna to find a job as a nurse. Uncle Alp takes her in. Pretty soon though neighbors’ tongues are wagging with all sorts of speculation. In addition to finding a job, she lots has to cope with epilepsy. When she does land a job in the dialysis unit she realizes that they are treated no better than slaves. On a daily basis she is subjected to intimidation and nosiness. She does her best to hide her Kurdish origins. Corruption reigns supreme when a patient commits suicide after contracting hepatitis from the unit. Al the nurses are forced to sign document or lose their jobs. Seren in the meantime is exploited by Uncle Alp. A neighbor assaults her and takes pictures and after realizing that she is Kurdish like him he ends up feeling remorseful and repents to Allah. He will get his just deserts. Later on she goes to Ankara to train for more advancement. The story peeks into the lives of girls who can e harassed on the street at will, raped or even impregnated by a boyfriend who ends up leaving them. Once a woman’s virtue is gone it is hard for her to get married. In the end she realizes she must leave Turkey if she can ever self-actualize.
I would give this book three stars based on the virtue of its insight into Turkish society and what females there have to endure. The writing style is very choppy and sort o hard to get into. The translation rigid and non-flowing. The dialogue is like cardboard. If they could do a better job of editing this book might earn a higher rating.
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