Page - 120 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

120 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine Najmabadi’s explanations can also shine a light on the relationship be- tween nation and homeland in the case of Turkey, where the relationship between millet and vatan can be developed on two different but intercon- nected levels, even complicating her typology at times. Seen as female in its bio-polity, or what Najmabadi calls “geo-bodies,” the memleket can be understood as the “soil of the nation.” As such, it refers to a female geo- graphy: the “motherland” embraces a polity of the state, which is attached to the soil. The national registration system assumes that every citizen must have a memleket, a place of birth within the state. However, culturally speaking, memleket is not a formality but the primary object of personal and social identities. In the case of the Turkish anavatan, English mother- land or German Vaterland, the polity is understood as a masculine polity. Secondly, the memleket can be a masculine entity and can also refer to the land of ancestors. In this form, it defines the place of family residence. As such, the “land of the family” means the land of the male ancestors (“ata toprağı”), with an indeterminable and romantic meaning attached to the idea of homeland. In general, the state is imagined as masculine while the soil of the state is feminine. Cultural anthropologist Carol Delaney argues that this dualism exists in the narratives of creation in Abrahamic religions. She continues saying that “family, nation, and religion are usually felt to demarcate sep- arate domains or areas of human experience but, at the same time, they all seem to say one thing.” (Delaney 1995, 177) Furthermore, the concept of “blood” as a key symbol in these verses needs to be analyzed, not only in the sense that it is the “blood” of the martyrs, but as the blood that serves as a vehicle and an “actual base” for interrelat- edness and homogeneity. As Jenny White observes, “[…] Kemalist secularism has taken on aspects of the sacred. Turkish blood represents the nation and is surrounded by taboos. In Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s speeches, the earth of Anatolia is sacred “because it is drenched in the blood of those who gave their lives for the country” (White 2013, 6). While Turkish is considered as a “gender-neutral” language, the language is not void of gendered references. In general, the state is imagined as masculine while the soil of the state is feminine.