Turkish teen suicide revives secular-pious debate
The debate over the place of Islam in public life remains among the most contentious in Turkey.
A Turkish court has slapped a ban on all coverage of a young medical student who took his life because he could no longer cope with the pressures of his religious family and the powerful Islamic Nur fraternity they had forced him to join.
The ban followed a formal petition lodged by Enes Kara’s father, Mehmet Kara, on the grounds that his family’s grief was being compounded by the media that infringed on its privacy.
Kara, 19, was laid to rest last week in his native Hatay province bordering Syria. However, the debate swirling around his tragic end continues apace, exposing the deep fractures between pious and secular Turks amid angry calls from the latter to shutter schools and dormitories run by the religious orders known as the "tarikats" and brotherhoods known as the "cemaat."
Kara made national headlines after sharing a video he had recorded on Dec. 5, 2021, before his death on Jan. 10 in which he explained why he was resorting to suicide. In a low, faltering and listless voice, Kara described his helplessness in the face of his daily grind at medical school followed by evenings at lodgings run by the Nur tarikat.
