The Fashions and Politics of Facial Hair in Turkey
- Submitting institution
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Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32Z_OP_C0001
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- The Routledge International Handbook to Veils and Veling
- Publisher
- Routledge
- ISBN
- 9780367193010
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This chapter investigates the little-researched area of men’s facial hair. There are various scholarly works on the historical and contemporary practices of facial hair in countries such as the UK and the US, which cover the socio-cultural and political aspects. The role of religion on facial hair practices, however, remains unexplored. This chapter discusses facial hair both in Islam—particularly the related Islamic rules—and the predominantly Muslim context of Turkey. It studies Turkish men’s facial hair practices, the state regulations related to men’s facial hair, and how they are enforced. For this, it analyses visual and textual data, including: photographs and field notes taken in situ; images and public social media posts collected online between 2013 and 2015; and Turkish TV dramas, newspapers and magazines of the same period.
The chapter examines the religious and socio-political meanings attached to specific types of facial hair in the Turkish republic (founded 1923). It identifies how political and economic changes at both personal and societal levels influence practices of, as well as meanings attached to, facial hair. It also demonstrates the convergences and divergences in practices of Muslim men from different Islamic denominations. Focusing on facial hair practices of Islamic (observant Muslim) and Islamist (supporter of political Islam) men during the 2000s and 2010s, when the Republic was ruled by a right-wing Islamic political party, it explores the diffusion of facial hair trends and particularly the influence of local and global popular culture, such as hipsterism and Turkish TV dramas in the 2010s.
This investigation into the creation of traditional and new Muslim identities, through different facial hair styles, demonstrates significant intergenerational differences, thus provides a valuable contribution to scholarship on men and masculinities, Islam and Muslim societies, lived religion as well as body adornment and embodied practices.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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