The Turkish Evil Eye...a.k.a. The Nazar

I'll never forget the first evil eye amulet I receieved in Turkey. It was just a few weeks after my arrival in Turkey, and I was getting familiar with Turkish culture, specifically male-female relations. My housemate, Fielding, had accepted a dinner date with the creepy guy at the reception desk of our hotel. Wanting to protect her reputation, I told her she was foolish to go alone (I'd learned this much so far), and that I'd come with her to not make it look like a date. (We live in a small city, and I was concerned about the destructive gossip I'd heard so much about).

The guy took us to dinner, engaging in awkward conversation with us since he hardly knew any English. He'd brought his nephew along--who was closer to Fielding's age--and rather than be put off that I'd broken up his date with Fielding, he paraded the two of us behind him through the city center as we followed him helplessly, since we didn't know the bus system well enough to get home by ourselves.

I was about to call a colleague to pick us up when the guy dashed into a jewelry shop with a disturbing smile. "No, please!" we shouted, but he didn't listen. Then he came out and handed us each a small bag. I opened it up, and inside I found my first evil eye amulet, a nazar boncuğu.

Turks are insanely superstitious about the evil eye, or nazar. The Evil Eye is basically a look someone can give you that will cause bad luck or misfortune. Countries all over the world believe in it, but I'm surprised at how pervasive it is, to the extent that there's a nazar amulet on Turkish airplanes, public offices, on baby clothing, on car mirrors, room and home entrances, and subtly woven into all kinds of jewelry. I've had Turkish coffee fortunes read where a bubble represented a nazar--which meant that someone was giving me the evil eye. That meant I had to stick a finger into the bubble and pop it to protect myself, as well as wear my nazar jewelry more fastidiously.

I'm starting to feel like everything you do can nazar or get you nazared by someone else, because a student recently told me that if you compliment someone's body part, you can nazar them (it's also a verb). This incident made her a believer: She was in her house one afternoon, and a neighbor walked by with a "short" skirt on (it was probably cut below the knee). My student told her that she had nice legs, as the neighbor traveled on her way. A few hours later, the neighbor came back. Apparently she'd had some kind of injury and (cue spooky voice) had hurt the very leg my student had complimented. Now, my student refuses to compliment people's body parts, unless they're wearing a nazar amulet, and even then...

As with all superstitions, it makes me giggle. But...I'm not going to lie, I also have a little nazar amulet on my purse...you know, just in case.

For more about the nazar amulet, or to purchase your own "insurance" you can check out this website here: www.nazarboncugu.com  where I stole my pictures from. Yeah, I know...I stole pictures from a nazar amulet website. What was I thinking? I'm screwed.