Vocational School of Justice
“TALISMANIC SHIRTS” AGAINST VIOLENCE
Talismanic shirts will be on display against violence. Prof. Dr. Elvan Özkavruk Adanır, Head of Fashion and Textile Design, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Izmir University of Economics, and Lecturer Jovita Sakalauskaite Kurnaz created talismanic shirts out of white shirts donated by 65 women. The shirts will be on display at “Korku ve Çaresizliğin Yadsınması: Tılsımlı Gömlekler (Talismanic Shirts: Denial of Fear and Desperation)” titled exhibition for the first time in Lithuania. The exhibition will take place at Kaunas College - University of Applied Sciences Art Gallery in Lithuania on August 15.
Prof. Dr. Elvan Özkavruk Adanır reported that Turks believed talismanic shirts protected wearers against diseases, enemies, dangers, and healed the sick in pre-Islamic times. She said, “Many talismanic shirts are on display at Topkapı Palace Museum. Certain rules are followed while spinning yarns, weaving fabrics, and engraving the talismans. We also abode by those rules while creating our talismanic shirts. We cut them down first, inscribed them, and then knitted them again.”
‘Power of Design: A Means to Support Women’
Prof. Dr. Adanır indicated that in old times talismanic shirts were created at a “propitious moment” determined by the soothsayer, and the surface of a talismanic object was covered with Qur’an verses, names of Allah, prayers, signs, numbers, poems, and decorative motifs and geometric shapes. Prof. Dr. Adanır stated that they prepared the exhibition to help and support fellow women, and 65 women from Izmir, Istanbul, Antalya, Hatay, and Vilnius supported the project with their white shirts.
‘21 Stories of 21 Talismanic Shirts’
Prof. Dr. Adanır said that they created the talismanic shirts with pieces cut from those 65 shirts. She stated the following:
“The installation consists of 21 shirts. The largest of the shirts bears the names of all women who supported the project. The remaining 20 shirts have their unique stories. There are inscriptions on the shirts about child brides, their cries, prayers, songs, statistics about violence the women in Turkey, Lithuania, and all around the world is subject to. Currently, 35% of women is subject to physical and sexual violence. Most of those are not on official records. It is a known fact that about 700 million females are forced into marriage at a young age. In Turkey 36% of women is affected by physical violence by their spouses or partners, and 44% of them do not tell this to anyone. The society overlooks this issue. Our exhibition will start in Lithuania on August 15 and stay open until September 5.”