Good muslims and "Bad muslims, "Good" women and feminists: Negotiating identities in Northern Cyprus (Or, the condom story)

This article examines the intersection of a "good/bad Muslim" identity with national, cultural, and gender categories in northern. Cyprus. It analyzes rite cultural and historical articulation of a modern, Western "bad Muslim" identity, and describes "the condom story, " an event where some Turkish Cypriot women attempted to transgress the social boundaries around gender roles. It is argued that the complex negotiations over a national identity (Cypriot and/or Turkish), a modem. identity (Eastern and/or Western), and a religious identity (Muslim and/or secular) result in contradictory messages about gender and sexuality for Turkish Cypriot women. This examination of identity negotiations-principally a bad Muslim identity, and of women's various attempts to subvert societal pressures-ultimately reveals some of the cultural controls over women's gender identity, particularly their sexuality, in Turkish Cypriot society.