"Suicide Girls": Orhan Pamuk's Snow and the Politics of Resistance in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract

In light of the current debate over the Islamic headscarf in Turkey, this article argues that women's bodies, caught in the crosshairs of political strife between state forces and fundamentalist groups, have become sites of a debate that often ignores the voice of women. Current suicide statistics within the country mirror the increased number of suicides among the "headscarf" girls in Orhan Pamuk's Snow. By looking closely at the suicides of the female characters, specifically Teslime, and criticism regarding veiling and resistance, the article posits that these women have found suicide to be their only tenable form of resistance in a state system plagued by an anxiety about change and that otherwise ignores their choices. In noting the parallels between a literary and sociological crisis, the article works toward recognizing the struggle of women to have their voices heard, without their eliminating themselves through suicide in the process .