Is polygamy good for women?

This blog was published on the website of the international news program Worldfocus on PBS

A proposal last week by Malaysia’s Islamic party argued that polygamy can be beneficial for women.

The conservative Islamic party has called for Muslim men in the country to marry single mothers instead of “young virgin girls,” said a state official. Al-Arabiya news channel quoted Wan Ubaidah, head of women, family and health affairs in a northern state,  remarking that although Malaysian men usually prefer young and virgin girls as their additional wives, this new proposal would help single mothers and widows who are finding it hard to raise their kids.

Read the rest of the article on the Worldfocus website.

Rising Islamist movements challenge secularism in Turkey

This feature story aired on the international news program Worldfocus on PBS.

Almost all of 77 million people in Turkey are Muslim, but signs of Islamic faith are noticeably divorced from everyday life. But a growing number of Turks are joining conservative movements that believe religion should play a greater role in the country’s ethical and moral values. Secular critics brand these religious groups as fundamentalist.

Correspondent Gizem Yarbil and producer Bryan Myers report on how traditional religion and modern democracy are trying to coexist in Turkey today.

Do Islamist groups pose a threat to democracy in Turkey?

This interview was done for the website of the international news program Worldfocus on PBS.

Dr. Ömer Taşpınar and Worldfocus producer Gizem Yarbil discuss the role of several important conservative religious groups in Turkey, including the Gulen movement, which is the largest, and the Mustazaflar-Der, which is influential in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.

Gizem Yarbil:  How influential are Islamic groups like the Gulen movement and Mustazaflar-Der in Turkey politically and socially?

Ömer Taşpınar: Particularly, the Gulen movement is very influential in the social, economic and cultural (particularly education)  field. The members of this brotherhood are probably in the millions. I think of this movement as a pious Muslim version of freemasons.

It’s essentially a solidarity network and a civil society organization with religious proclivities. Some analyst are bothered by the movement’s cultish attachment to its leader but this is not uncommon in Turkish/Anatolian political culture.

Read the rest of the interview on the Worldfocus website.

Israel condemns Turkish TV drama for “incitement”

This blog was published on the website of the international news program Worldfocus on PBS

Gizem Yarbil is a producer at Worldfocus and a native of Turkey. She blogs about a controversy over a Turkish television program.

Only a few days after Turkey excluded Israel from a joint NATO war exercise, a new crisis is brewing between the two Middle East allies.

The problem is a television drama series that Israel condemns as state-sanctioned “incitement.”

“Separation,” a 13-part TV series that aired on Turkey’s state-run television channel for the first time on Wednesday, has several controversial scenes. In one, a Palestinian father holds his new-born above his head in front of Israeli soldiers at a check point. A few seconds later, one of the soldiers shoots the baby dead. In another scene, Israeli soldiers kick and beat elderly Palestinians on the streets and one soldier shoots a teenage Palestinian girl on her chest.

Read the rest of the article on the Worldfocus website.

Female soccer players shoot down Turkish taboos

This feature story aired as part of the Women in Islam series on the international news program Worldfocus on PBS.

In much of Turkey, playing soccer is something girls simply don’t do. But some women players are challenging the norms and taking to the field.

As Worldfocus correspondent Gizem Yarbil and producer Bryan Myers discovered, part of the resistance to women playing soccer is religious and part of it is cultural.

A La Cart – Street Vendors of New York City

Airing on: AlHurra TV

Reporters/Producers/Writers/Camera/Edit:

Gizem Yarbil, Tais Moraes, Rob Thompson

Project Adviser: Philip Scheffler

Street Vendors have become a New York City fixture. There are more than 10,000 in the city and more than 80% of them are immigrants. They work long hours under harsh conditions, counting on good weather to sell their goods and services.

Since 1994, vendors have been the subjects of New York City’s “quality of life” crackdown.

Here is the story of a day in the life of street vendors in New York City.

This 30-minute documentary has been produced as the final Master’s Project thesis for the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

A 22-minute version of this documentary is airing currently in the Middle East and North Africa on Al Hurra, an Arabic language satellite television network.

You can view this documentary at:

A La Cart – Street vendors of New York City from Tais on Vimeo.

Neo-Nazis rally on Capitol

Reporter/Producer/Writer/Camera/Edit: Gizem Yarbil
Co-Producer: Matthew Kennard
Still Title Photo: Zachary Goelman

Members of a neo-Nazi group calling themselves America’s Nazi Party rallied in Washington this Saturday against illegal immigration. As they rallied near the Capitol, others gathered to protest the presence of the neo-Nazis, keeping police busy throughout the afternoon.

Heroes of Gotham City

Reporter: Gizem Yarbil
Producer: Yaldaz Sadakova
Written by: Gizem Yarbil and Yaldaz Sadakova
Special Thanks to: Begin North Productions
For web only

You never know who you’ll run into on the streets of New York…

Coverage of the U.S. 2008 Elections in the Turkish Press

Published: Global Press Watch

American politics has always been prominent in the Turkish press and most Turkish papers cover important U.S. news intensively. However, the run-up to the 2008 primary elections and caucuses has coincided with a very busy political period in Turkey. At the moment, the Turkish media is full of coverage of the incursion of the Turkish army into Northern Iraq and the ongoing armed conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey. Another event that is dominating the news agenda is the ruling conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party’s stubborn effort to change the law that bans the veil in Turkish universities. Thus, the elections in America have not yet become a prominent spectacle in the Turkish press. Read the rest of the article.