Somewhere between 95-99% of Turkish people are Muslim and therefore, many of the women wear varying degrees of Islamic wear with the extreme (but not at all rare) leaving only their eyes visible. This makes it difficult to be a female with Western dress habits, or the boyfriend of said female, living in Istanbul. Any bit of skin that shows (even neck and face skin while wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans) will cause some staring.
Perhaps the worst experience we've had so far happened last Sunday. It was the hottest day we'd had in Istanbul, being about 75+ degrees, and we decided to walk south across the bridge to the historical area and do some sightseeing and shopping. Being the nice day and all, I celebrated by wearing shorts and a t-shirt. This may have been the worst decision I have made in this city. From the moment we walked out of the apartment until I hastily made a street change into my capris, my legs drew the attention of every visually-capable male (young and old included) everywhere we went. By the way they were staring you would think I was strolling around in a thong bikini and no top leaving Todd to wonder whether to punch every other Turkish male, or to try to turn a blind eye to the blatant gawking. Neither option was very appealing and I felt extremely visually accosted, so we found a street clothing store with dressing rooms where I could change into the capris I had originally intended on using for protection against the weather, not for protection from male eyes.
The moral of this story is: when visiting Istanbul, cover up. It's worth being overdressed and possibly hot to avoid the stares of men who are unaccustomed to seeing skin on women.
Perhaps the worst experience we've had so far happened last Sunday. It was the hottest day we'd had in Istanbul, being about 75+ degrees, and we decided to walk south across the bridge to the historical area and do some sightseeing and shopping. Being the nice day and all, I celebrated by wearing shorts and a t-shirt. This may have been the worst decision I have made in this city. From the moment we walked out of the apartment until I hastily made a street change into my capris, my legs drew the attention of every visually-capable male (young and old included) everywhere we went. By the way they were staring you would think I was strolling around in a thong bikini and no top leaving Todd to wonder whether to punch every other Turkish male, or to try to turn a blind eye to the blatant gawking. Neither option was very appealing and I felt extremely visually accosted, so we found a street clothing store with dressing rooms where I could change into the capris I had originally intended on using for protection against the weather, not for protection from male eyes.
The moral of this story is: when visiting Istanbul, cover up. It's worth being overdressed and possibly hot to avoid the stares of men who are unaccustomed to seeing skin on women.
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