Unveiling a New Identity

Sen, Issue 13, February 2005, Rotterdam

When Senay Ozdemir emigrated from Turkey to the Netherlands in 1976, she took to her adopted home relatively easily. Ozdemir’s upbringing in a liberal Turkish family made the transition a smooth one — far smoother than the struggles of many young Muslims who have a difficult time reconciling Western values with those of the places they left behind. Decades later, as a well-known television newscaster, Ozdemir wanted to do something to help other young Muslim immigrants make the cultural leap. So, she launched a Web site where they could anonymously pose the kinds of questions they dared not ask their conservative parents. "Because I know the nuances of the culture, I can give them good answers," says Ozdemir.

The migrant’s dilemma of being trapped between two cultures has become particularly acute for Muslim immigrants in the West in recent years. The Netherlands became an unexpected center stage for this drama with the fatal stabbing last November of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a first-generation Dutchman of Moroccan descent. The alleged attacker, acting on behalf of a group with suspected ties to al Qaeda, was angered by van Gogh’s collaboration with Somali-born parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a film that decried the status of women in Islam.

The event ignited much soul-searching in the über-liberal Netherlands, now home to the second-largest per capita Muslim population in Europe. Since the first wave of Turkish and Moroccan guest workers arrived in the 1960s and 70s, the government has tried to accommodate its growing Muslim population through such initiatives as the establishment of Islamic "men’s" clubs. Now, however, many believe these well-meaning liberal policies have had the unintended consequence of isolating immigrant communities and discouraging integration, making Holland a breeding ground for radical Islam.

In this fraught climate, Ozdemir has carved out a unique niche. After becoming Europe’s first Turkish television anchorwoman in 1993, Ozdemir was adopted as a role model by thousands of Dutch-Muslim girls. When the Web site she launched in 2003 began attracting a great deal of traffic, she followed it a year later with a glossy magazine for "Mediterranean women," a term she says removes the stigma associated with Islam or immigration. Named in part for its founder, Sen (the word means "you" in Turkish) speaks to women who, like Ozdemir, wrestle daily with the conflicting mores of two very different cultures.

Sen‘s fashion and beauty coverage, travelogues, and profiles resemble those of a standard Western women’s magazine, albeit with dark-haired models rather than blond, blue-eyed ones. But between the recipes and fashion spreads appear articles on topics such as the founding of sharia-observant banks in England, or profiles of women who have subverted the cultural-religious divide, such as a Dutch woman who converted to radical Islam or a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim who came out as a lesbian. And, of course, there is an advice column, dispensing wisdom on husbands who insist on marrying virgins or parents who prohibit interreligious dating — often under threat of death. This mix of the personal and political is well represented in the February 2005 issue, the theme of which is "Lust and Body." Nedjma, the North African author of Wild Fig, an erotic novel that has been translated into 15 languages, says in an interview that "the traditional world doesn’t fit me, but wherever I live, in New York, in London or in Paris, I will always be a Maghreb." Nedjma hopes her book will "show that not all Arab women are veiled, which is the image many westerners have, and on the other hand, to shock Arab men with a story about female sexuality."

In another article titled "We Are Also Afraid," young Muslim men and women describe the alienation and persecution they experience living in Holland today. A young woman named Hiriya describes why some people have begun wearing headscarves or growing long beards: "It’s a reaction to the events," she says. Young people like Hiriya feel that if they are going to be viewed as extremists, then they will dress like extremists.

Sen‘s fans extend beyond its subscribers: The Dutch daily newspaper Volkskrant named it 2004’s best new magazine, and several feminist writers have lauded it as well. Although Sen preaches to the proverbial choir to some extent (conservative Muslim girls are unlikely to read a magazine with dating advice and racy fashion features), the reassurance that Westernizing women find there can only be empowering. In creating a place where it is safe for Muslim youth to "be Western," Ozdemir may have accomplished more than any well-intentioned government program.