Elif Shafak: When women are divided it is the male status quo that benefits
The Turkish novelist on reclaiming faith from religion, her love for Istanbul, and the creative benefits of self-imposed exile
Elif Shafak is the most widely read female novelist in Turkey. She is also a political commentator. Three Daughters of Eve is an intense, discursive and absorbing novel about three middle-eastern women, each studying at Oxford, with dramatically contrasting views.
Interview by Kate Kellaway
Sunday 5 February 2017 04.00 EST
I was halfway through your chillingly prescient novel, which includes a terrorist incident, when the Istanbul bombing happened. How did you feel when you heard the news?
I was heartbroken, and horrified by hate speeches in which Islamist groups seemed to blame the victims for celebrating a Christian holiday. When writing the novel, I took a close look at Turkish society and its psychology. Fear is in the air, there is constant anxiety. I observed this at every level of Turkish society – subtle but strong. Something explodes in a kitchen in Istanbul and everyone throws themselves to the floor, thinking it might be a bomb. We have no memory, no time for analysis or even for grief. This was the psychology I wanted to capture in my book.
If the city were a person, how would you describe Istanbul?
Istanbul is a she – an active player. It is a city of conflict and resistance. Yet greed is destroying Istanbul – everywhere you go, you see gentrification without planning or regard for the city’s history.
In your 2010 TED talk, The Politics of Fiction, you said critics sometimes typecast you, expecting you to write sad stories about Muslims. Why?
It is because of identity politics – we are, sadly, becoming more tribal. The expectation seems to be that a writer from each tribe must tell the story of that tribe. I’m Turkish but also many other things. For me, imagination is a desire to transcend boundaries. When we write, we can be multiple.
Three Daughters of Eve is, in part, a meditation on faith. Do you – like your character, Peri – see God as an imposter?
Those of us on the liberal left have not done a good job in discussing faith’s secular aspects. Faith is not necessarily a religious concept. When you move to a new country because you have an irrational urge to do so, it is a secular act of faith. When you start writing a novel, with no clue whether it will succeed, it is a secular act of faith. When you fall in love and don’t know if the person will bring happiness to your life, and yet you leap – it is a secular act of faith. I don’t want religions to hijack faith. I want the concept of faith back.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/05/elif-shafak-turkey-three-daughters-of-eve-interview