Kurdish Female Migrants Meet Isolation In Istanbul Life isn't
easy for the female migrants continually flowing into Istanbul
from Turkey's Kurdish region. Those who are illiterate or unable
to speak Turkish can face particularly intense isolation from
basic services. Sosin and her family moved from rural Turkey to
Istanbul, the country's largest city, and for four years she did
not leave the house, not even to buy food for her children. "I
was afraid to be lost. I never saw any place outside the house.
We would be starving with the children until evening when my
husband would come home," she told researchers with the
Istanbul-based Basak Culture and Art Foundation. Its findings
were published last year in the book, "What Has Changed? Kurdish
Women's Experiences with Forced Migration." "Women are generally
more active in their villages, where they work in fields, walk
around and have a social life," Nese Erdilek, administrative
director of the Center for Migration Research at Istanbul's
Bilgi University, told