From the Ka'ba with Shahmaran to Bogazici University The Sacred and Occupation

Abstract

In 2021, protests were held at Boğaziçi University in Turkey against the appointment of a rector by President Erdoğan. Students were arrested for exhibiting an artwork that reportedly depicted the Kaaba alongside LGBT flags and an image of the mythical creature, half-woman and half-snake, Shahmaran. The Presidency of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Directorate of Communications deemed the artwork disrespectful towards the Kaaba, the most sacred space for Muslims. This chapter proposes rethinking the Kaaba as void. Firstly, tracing Ali Shariati’s thinking on Hajar and the hajj, it explores the difference between the desecration of sacred places and respecting the void. Secondly, inspired by Simone Weil, it considers the figure of Shahmaran as a problema that does not fill the void. Finally, it elucidates how the void is occupied by the institutions mentioned above, utilising Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of the economy of symbolic goods.