About a century ago, women in the US and western Europe looked to ‘Turkish pantaloons’ (shalwar) for freedom and were shamed, harassed, and even arrested for wearing them. Meanwhile, people of all genders in Turkey and Bulgaria moved freely in shalwar until modern nation-building projects imposed Western restrictive dress that rigidly delineated the boundaries of masculinity and femininity. Considering shalwar's recent elevated status as trendy global fashion attire, what is the public discourse of shalwar in Bulgaria and Turkey? Can clothing shunned as backward be recontextualized as modern? What can clothing illuminate about gender, modernity, and geopolitics? To answer these questions, I analyse over two hundred Turkish and Bulgarian primary sources through critical transculturalism and critical race theory.

Last modified

• 05/22/2023

Creator

• Celikkol, Yasemin

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-s0vv-jy73

Keyword

• Politics
• The Middle East

Date created

• 2022

Related url

•  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13678779221094058

Resource type

• Article

Source

• International Journal of Cultural Studies

Rights statement

• In Copyright