March 8, 2009 Happy International Women's Day! Unlike most countries I've lived in, this holiday is actually a big deal in Russia and elsewhere in the former USSR, where women are given flowers and many toasts are usually drunk.  Women's Day always brings smiles in Russia  In the Soviet Union, this day was held in particular favor because demonstrations by women on March 8 (February 23 according to the Julian calendar then in use in Russia) helped to initiate a series of protests and strikes in Russia which led to the abdication of tsar Nicholas II four days later. Accordingly, all fifteen of the countries which officially celebrate Women's Day as a public holiday are socialist or formerly socialist states. Ten of them are in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The republics of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Georgia, which have all sought to distance themselves from Russia and the Soviet legacy, have done away with the holiday. The other for Soviet republic to do so is Turkmenistan. In Russia, there is also a "Men's Day." Officially called "Defenders of the Fatherland Day," this holiday is celebrated on February 23. Meanwhile, in Arnavutkoy, flowers were laid at the door of the research center where I'm living. With municipal elections coming up at the end of this month, Besiktas mayor Ismail Unal had sent out flowers to all of the women in Arnavutkoy, and (I imagine) all of Besiktas as well. (Besiktas is one "borough" of Istanbul, and elects its own mayor). Jenny White writes on the introduction of Kurdish language classes at Bilgi University in Istanbul.  One unexpected (to me, at any rate) consequence of the world financial crisis has been the amazing rise of the dollar against weaker currencies like the Turkish lira and the ruble. Yesterday the dollar went up to almost 1.8 liras. It was about 1.25 to the dollar when I came here in September. In Russia, there were about 23 rubles when I left in September, and now there are about 35. Obviously, this makes life increasingly difficult for people receiving their salaries in these currencies, as the fall in their currencies' values makes imported goods more expensive. For someone like me, who is living in these countries on money I withdraw from my dollar bank account in the United States, the cost of living has dropped considerably. An elderly woman was prevented from boarding the campaign bus of the opposition Republican People's Party last Sunday during a rally. After it turned out that the woman is a RPP member who stood as a candidate for the party ten years ago, RPP (known as CHP in Turkish) Istanbul mayoral candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu criticized his party members for forcing the woman off the bus. Lately it seems like the Republican People's Party isn't sure what it wants to do regarding the headscarf issue. The party is self-consciously "secular" in the Turkish sense of the word, and has long vociferously opposed the efforts of the AK Party and others in Turkey to allow women to wear headscarves at state universities. Nevertheless, the moribund RPP (which, I think, stands to suffer a beating in nationwide municipal elections coming up on March 29), has recently been trying to voters outside its "secular" base (in Turkey, "secular" does not mean the separation of religious institutions from the state, but rather their control by the state, and "secular" voters tend to oppose the appearance of symbols of Islamic piety in the public sphere). Last Fall, the RPP attempted to recruit headscarf-clad women to stand as candidates for the party, and last month RPP leader Deniz Baykal endorsed a call for Koran courses to be set up in every district of the country. The RPP mayoral candidate in the district of Pendik, outside Istanbul, was distributing headscarves to women this week. Ultimately, I think this is a losing proposition for the Republican People's Party. The people they are trying to win over are not stupid. It would have been one thing for the RPP to gradually change its ways and come to grips with the fact that most people in this country feel that wearing a headscarf shouldn't stigmatize a person. But it seems like only yesterday that Baykal was arguing that "moves to end the head scarf ban are aimed at the very foundations of Ataturk's secular republic."  Rethinking your views is one thing. Changing your thinking by 180 degrees virtually overnight smacks people here of political opportunism and condescension. There are many headscarfed women in Turkey who nevertheless vote RPP, just as there are many pious Muslim men who support the party. But I really don't think Baykal's headscarf initiative is going to win over many voters, while it's clearly dismaying to his diehard RPP supporters. Baykal's efforts to transform his party into AK Party lite, I predict, will only further confuse an already confused and very rudderless party, as last Sunday's events and Kilicdaroglu's rapid climb-down indicate. Metrobus geldi! Istanbul's Metrobus, which first opened in 2007, has now been expanded to take passengers all the way from Avcilar, which is beyond the airport on the European side), to Sogutlucesme, on the Anatolian side of the city, all in 38 minutes with 18 stops. A trip of this distance (30 kilometers) by car could take about ninety minutes even in relatively good traffic. The metrobus is able to travel more quickly because, with the exception of the crossing of the Bosphorus Bridge between the European and Anatolian (Asian) sides of Istanbul, the bus will have a traffic lane to itself. Indeed, public transportation in Istanbul has improved enormously since I lived here in the 90s. While there's always been an impressive selection of buses, minibuses, shared-taxis, boats, and both underground and above-ground funiculars to choose from, the construction of a metro system, a new underground funicular, and new tram and light-rail lines has really improved things a lot. Hayırlı Olsun!