This is the ninth instalment in ‘Siyah’, a series exploring the relationship between the African Diaspora and Turkish social and cultural narratives, with journalist Adama Juldeh Munu. Courtesy of the Ottoman History Podcast, the following interview explores debates on aesthetics, headwear and dress in Algeria and Turkey during the interwar years (1918-1939).

Why did hats and hijabs (head coverings in Arabic) generate so much debate among Algerian thinkers, both men and women? How did expectations about what men would wear on their heads carry different political connotations than similar debates about women’s head coverings? This episode takes up the role of dress and comportment in shaping Algerian conversations about colonialism, feminism, and Islamic reform, as well as the importance of a “Turkish model”, during interwar Algerian debates.

Hosted by Susanna Ferguson

Special guest: Seçil Yılmaz, Historian of medicine, gender, and sexuality in the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East

Source: “Hats and Hijab in Algeria and Turkey,” Mostafa Minawi and Chris Gratien, Ottoman History Podcast, No. 341 (7 January 2018)

Listen here.