Yet she has caused outrage in Turkey after the British publication of her debut
novel. The Turkish Diplomat's Daughter is a racy roman à clef, chronicling
sexual affairs with a Bangladeshi landlord, a sailor and a Freddie
Mercury-obsessed fantasist.
When Turkish newspapers got hold of the book, Tamtekin admitted her identity
(it is written under the pseudonym Deniz Goran) and was so roundly pilloried
that worried friends dubbed her "the female Salman Rushdie". Splashed on the
front pages of at least four national newspapers, she was derided as a
"high-class Mayfair prostitute" who was writing about her own thinly veiled
sexual experiences. The media were astonished that not only a Turkish woman but
one from the highest echelons of society had written so frankly about her
sexuality.
A public witch-hunt went on to name and shame members of the Turkish elite
whose sexual peccadil-loes were supposedly outlined by the novel. Tamtekin went
into hiding for three weeks, horrified by the uproar.
Despite the title, she insists that the novel is not about her experiences.
"It's not an autobiography, although there are people and situations in it that
have inspired me. In society, women are expected to play the game according to
the rules. Well, I wanted to create a character who does as she pleases. It's
not common for women in Turkey to be so overtly sexual," admits Tamtekin.
Although she concedes she has not received death threats, the examples of not
only Rushdie, but also Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker murdered for
Submission, his transgressive film about women and sex in Islamic society, are
a reminder that artistic expression as social critique is not easily accepted
in some Muslim countries, even the secular ones.
Tamtekin is unbowed and is furious about the hypocrisy. "It's not as if no one
has sex in Turkey. Of course women have sexually active lives, but they always
make sure that no one hears about them. Women aren't able to stand out as
individuals and talk openly about sex or fancying men," she says.
Turkey might pride itself on its secularity, but it seems as if the notion of a
sexually active woman is as utterly taboo there as it is in far more
fundamentalist Muslim countries. Tamtekin, who has a BA in history of art from
University College London, is the first Turkish Muslim woman to publish a
sexually explicit book. The reaction to what would seem pretty mainstream in
Britain and the rest of Europe, where even such salacious series as Sex and the
City have become accepted, shows how wide the gulf in attitudes still is
between Turkey and its neighbours.
The process of Turkish accession to the European Union may well require a
wholesale modernisation of the country's attitudes to women and freedom of
expression. "There are no tele-vision programmes where people just chat about
sex, for example," says Tamtekin. "Where I am from in Istan-bul, it's not that
restrictive. I come from a secular, liberal background. But a high number of
people living in Turkey regard virginity as crucial and would not contemplate
the idea that their daughter might have sex before marriage."
As her book roundly attests, this morality is often utter hypocrisy; Tamtekin
vividly describes a society where young women may well be sexually active but
who are encouraged to visit a back-street doctor for a bit of "corrective"
surgery before marriage.
She writes of a society where in remote rural areas incest is an unspoken but
present horror and where, even among the middle classes, "sex, especially
female sexuality and homo-sexuality, is still regarded as taboo - it's always
done in a highly intricate manner behind closed doors".
From the subsequent furore, one can only surmise that many of her observations
on Turkish society are spot on; even her father, the worldly wise diplomat, has
stopped speaking to her since her book came out. "When a female Turkish author
writes about sex in such a big way, that's a big issue," says Tamtekin sadly.
Given all the fuss, why did she go on with the publication of her novel in
Turkish, which is now imminent? "Before signing the Turkish agreement I did
have my doubts," she admits. "But if you have an idea and have created
something, you have to take a stand and go all the way. I'm not insisting on
imposing my own ideas, but everyone has a right to an opinion. I believe I have
a right to publish this book in Turkey. And I will stand by my book."
She says that when writing it she just let her imagination wander. "I mean, why
do people make such a big deal of it," she says. "We all have sex, everyone
does. Sex is part of life and we should come to terms with it. From an early
age, my father always taught me there was no taboo in art. And so I took him at
his word."
Somehow I suspect that did not go down too well with the former
consular-general. "Well, I sent him a letter reminding him that he always told
me I was an artist with a great imagination. Of course, my mother asked me why
I didn't write a novel all about flowers and birds."
Her novel is a lively gauntlet thrown down by a single woman championing casual
sex. It encourages women to indulge in sex openly and freely and even dares to
cast a sceptical look at marital fidelity. And it's not just about Turkey.
As she writes: "I never seem to understand why society considers sexually
liberated women as such a big threat. Even in London, as a woman you need to
play down your sexuality, otherwise people see you as some sort of a nuisance.
I find it insane that there is still a majority out there who actually believe
men . . . have a much higher sexual drive than women."
While The Turkish Diplomat's Daughter (Burning House, £10.99) may not be
perfect literary fiction, the ideas that it suggests are quietly revolutionary.
"I would like to be able to change opinion a bit," says Tamtekin. "I am not
saying every woman should be leaping around, but they should have more freedom
to do so if they wish to. And be open about it."
