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VAKIF AS INTENT AND PRACTICE: CHARITY AND POOR RELIEF IN TURKEY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Damla Isik
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Abstract

Through ethnographic and archival research conducted in Istanbul and Izmir, this article examines the dynamics and regulation of charitable giving in contemporary Turkey. The article is based on interviews I conducted with the volunteers, employees, and aid recipients of three civil society organizations that rely on charitable giving to fund their projects, which center on helping the poor and providing aid during and after wars and other disasters. I document how religious ideals of anonymous charitable giving for the sake of giving, without expectation of return, are closely intertwined with anxiety over finding a worthy charitable association and recipient. In doing so, I focus on vakıf as both a concept and a practice that gives meaning to charitable giving in Turkey. The increasing desire to document, define, and categorize the deserving poor as a way to justify the intent to give and to receive goes against the anonymity and immediacy of giving, thus riddling intent with ethical contradictions. I argue that attention needs to be paid to the intent, practice, and various forms of giving, and not just to the effects and outcomes of charity.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2: Politics of Benevolence , May 2014 , pp. 307 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I thank all of the people I interviewed, talked to, or spent time with during this research. I am grateful for their time and patience. I am also very grateful to the editors and reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which improved the paper immensely. Any mistakes are my own.

1 Names and other information about the individuals have been changed, and some interviews and information have been aggregated, to ensure anonymity. This was necessary because some of the volunteers and employers I talked to were very active and well known in the organizations, so it would have been almost impossible to keep confidentiality otherwise. I met most of my interviewees with the help of the organizations mentioned in the article; once I had initial contact, I was able to meet other donors and volunteers with the help of those I interviewed.

2 As part of the process of documenting the legitimacy of potential aid recipients’ need, DF sent volunteers unannounced to their houses to fill out a survey form and gather more data. This was called “the social survey.” The volunteers made note of what the applicant owned and talked to her neighbors and local stores to get more information, which aided the association in deciding the proper aid amount, level, and type. I discuss this process and other technological tools used by DF in Isik, Damla, “The Specter and Reality of Corruption in State and Civil Society: Privatizing and Auditing Poor Relief in Turkey,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 32 (2012): 57–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Amy Singer highlights possible motivations of charitable giving as “a reflection of a donor's wishes, inspired by spiritual, social, economic, or political motives, possibly including self-interest and ambition. Attaining paradise in the afterlife or social standing among the living, seeking economic advantage through tax reduction or protection of property, and consolidating the support of constituencies all constitute possible motives for what may be termed charitable or beneficent acts.” Singer, Amy, “Serving Up Charity: The Ottoman Public Kitchen,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 (2005): 481–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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8 A group of civilian ships organized by IHH, which carried 750 humanitarian workers and loads of humanitarian aid, was intercepted and attacked by Israel on international waters in May 2010.

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18 Bikmen, Türkiye'de Hayırseverlik, 14.

19 Kristina Kamp, “Starting Up in Turkey: Turkey's Top NGOs,” Today's Zaman, 18 March 2009, http:/www.todayszaman.com/tz_web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=169902.

20 Singer, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence, 25.

21 For the full text of the Waqf Law, Law Number 5737, see http://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.5.5737.pdf (accessed 6 January 2014).

22 For Law No. 5253, see http://www.alomaliye.com/5253_sayili_kanun_dernekler_kanunu.htm (accessed 6 January 2014).

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51 Osman Nuri Topbaş, “Allah'a Verilen Karz-ı Hasen (Güzel Borç–Infak),” http:/www.osmannuritopbas.com/altinoluk-dergisi/allah-a-verilen-karz-i-hasen-guzel-borc-infak.html (accessed 2 August 2010).

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56 Please see note 2.

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59 For a longer discussion on the politics of charitable giving, see ibid.

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