Elif Safak
(b. 1971) is a novelist and a professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. She holds an MA in Women's Studies from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Presently she works as a research assistant at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
Her novels include: Pinhan (1997), Sehrin Aynalari (1999), Mahrem (2000), Bit Palas (2002). In English: The Saint of Incipient Insanities (2004), The Flea Palace (translation of Bit Palas, 2005), The Gaze (translation of Mahrem 2006), and The Bastard of Istanbul (2006) In 2006, Safak was charged in Turkey with "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. She was dismissed for lack of evidence. Elif Safak's personal website.Eurozine Articles
The power of the covered women
Istanbul's feminine district
A pink halo hovers over Istanbul's traditional district of Üsküdar, where many of the monuments, mosques, and fountains were built by or for women. [more]




