"From Orhan Pamuk to Oriana Fallaci
From the desk of James McConalogue on Tue, 2006-07-11 23:56
In Turkey, Orhan Pamuk has recently taken to defending a controversial female columnist – Perihan Magden – after the Turkish Armed Forces pursued a case against the author for objecting and denigrating military service. Since the defendant, Magden, is a female supporting Mehmet Tarhan, a homosexual citizen, it has become a case not simply considering the place of women and homosexuals in Turkish culture, but more importantly, a case highlighting the right that all individuals have to express themselves, given the intrusive status of religion in public life. The cases of these authors demonstrate the very reason(s) why it continues to be necessary to defend the freedom of expression on religious matters in Europe’s transitional democracies."
More:From Orhan Pamuk to Oriana Fallaci | The Brussels Journal
