A Wonderful Example

Staff report with Wires, "Religious Affairs Directorate forms women's Sufi music choir" - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Religious Affairs Directorate, with input from female religious scholars from throughout Turkey, has put together a group called the Turkish Women’s Sufi Music Chorus.

The group, which sings interpretations of prayers, Bektaşi hymns and Mevlevi pieces, is accompanied by a group of female musicians.

The request for a female chorus came in the wake of the creation of a similar group for men. The Religious Affairs Directorate welcomed the request, inviting students studying at Quran courses who have an interest in music and women working in connection with the directorate on other projects to take a qualifying exam to join the chorus.

Women taking the exam were judged by teachers from the Ankara department of theology, as well as by officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Women from all over Turkey applied to be a part of this new chorus. Those who passed the exam were put through an eight-hour-a-day training program that lasted for one week. The program set up to train the members of the new chorus was based on the first year of courses at a music conservatory.

The new chorus is being directed by Nebahat Konu Yılmaz, an artist who works with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The chorus, accompanied by a group of female musicians, performs both nationally and internationally. So far there has been a great deal of interest in the group.

Rukiye Gökduman, the assistant director of the chorus, noted that the women in the Sufi music chorus all have close relations to music through their interest in religion and that all the members of the chorus have a natural propensity for music.

Gökduman also stated that everyone in the chorus had worked hard to get through their training and that thus far the response to their concerts has been very encouraging.

“Our chorus is a wonderful example for women, particularly women who are interested in religion,” she said.