SPOILER ALERT
[For those of you who want a summary of the first season, you can read my review here. The rest of this piece delves deeper into the Season premiere aired on Monday, September 30]
The second season of Kızıl Goncalar started with incredible momentum that shifted the entire axis of the story built in Season 1. Moving away from Zeynep’s journey of emancipation, enabled by Meryem, Cüneyd, Levent and scores of others, and Cüneyd’s healing from his early trauma, we have the powerful entrance of Vahit, creating an existential crisis for all the key characters we came to know.
Clearly Vahit is a puppet for formidable forces we are yet to discover. Backed by a deep state, Vahit is bold and tauntingly egregious in his words and actions. He is declaring an open, carefully crafted and publicized war on secularism, intentionally provoking strife and mayhem. His monologues about ‘true Islam’ are designed to sound pompous and believable but rooted in falsehoods and misdirection. His brand of political Islam is not only a threat to the tariqat but also to the balance in the country.
The two possible things that could bring him down are 1) solid evidence that proves that he murdered his father and 2) Cüneyd. Vahit’s fingerprints are on the poisoned scarf that killed Mürşid Hazretleri; and the love and reverence the faniler have for Cüneyd is unmatched. Sadi knows this and is unsuccessful in preserving either. All seems to have crumbled and evil has won.
Thematically, what are the building blocks of this new season?
Zeus and Cronus
Vahit, bitter from his beloved wife Gül Ayşe’s death that he blames on Cüneyd, uses it as the broadcasted reason for why he wants to crush Cüneyd completely. His deranged mind is convinced that a five year old child telling his mother to jump makes it the child’s fault that she took such a step.
He conveniently forgets that she was a possibly schizophrenic mother who often talked to Cüneyd about flying with the birds and took him up to the aqueduct with the promise of flying with the birds. That she was the one who kept asking Cüneyd if she should jump. Or that Vahit and the other adults in the tariqat treated Gül Ayşe as being mentally sick and mostly kept her locked up, and isolated from her child, leading to further decline of her mental state. Or the fact that Gül Ayşe felt she had been chosen for Cüneyd (or that he was the chosen one), and after she had him, she possibly had little regard for Vahit. And, most importantly, Vahit is fearful of the veneration Cüneyd can command from the faniler and wants to remove him before he can ever become a threat to Vahit’s dominance and natural ascension to power as the Mürşid’s elder son.
As in the father and son conflict in Greek mythology, Vahit (Cronus), tries to devour Cüneyd (Zeus), before he can grow to overthrow Vahit. Not only does he exploit Cüneyd’s fragile state of mind and land a crushing blow by telling him he is responsible for Gül Ayşe’s death, he also exploits Cüneyd’s love for Zeynep and manipulates their separation. Vahit understands the healing power Zeynep is for Cüneyd and how the two of them together can be powerful. Hence, he seeks to remove that threat as well by wanting to marry Zeynep so that Cüneyd can never find his way back to her again.
All of this is a precursor to an epic battle that will ensue between father and son. Even Sadi tells Levent “only Cüneyd can stop him”.
Islamic Tenets: Violated At Will
Vahit is a predator, preying on the weakness of the followers. By appearing as a benefactor for those in economic hardship, he is buying their devotion. By taking away education and plunging people into intellectual darkness, he is creating a pack of followers who can only look to him for light. Uneducated mothers will lack the tools to raise enlightened children and this plays further into an unbalanced patriarchal narrative. His selective, draconian approach to establishing himself as the supreme leader is disingenuous and violates so many principles of the Quranic Islam.
Mahram
In Islam, mahram comes from the word 'haram' and means something that is sacred or prohibited. In his expressed desire to marry Zeynep, even if he never consummates the marriage, Vahit violates clearly established tenets in Islam. 4:23 (Sura An-Nisa) states “…forbidden to you for marriage are… the wives of your own sons.” Several Islamic scholars have stated that wives of biological sons are forbidden to fathers even if there is divorce or no children.
Conflating this scenario with Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) marrying the childless ex-wife of his adopted son would be wrong. Zainab (rA) was the Prophet’s paternal cousin and the marriage to her late in his life was to establish 1) the difference between biological and adopted sons (also demonstrated in the Quran in the context of property rights) and 2) that the Prophet left no assumed heir to his mantle. His adopted son is not an heir apparent.
One assumes that there is no outcry of rule violation from Sadi or Müesser regarding Vahit’s proposed marriage, based on this conflation in some schools of thought.
Education and Subservience
Vahit is regressive in his messaging around girls and their education. He paints their purpose in life to be subservient to the man. Yet the Quran has plenty of verses that encourage Muslims to remain in the pursuit of knowledge, not only for better understanding of the religious way of life but also to understand how to ward off evil. There is no gender discrimination in this pursuit and in the quest to become a better Muslim.
In his living example, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was married to a widow 15 years his senior and they had a fulfilling marriage of 25 years until her passing. She was the business owner at the time of their marriage and he worked for her. The most revered leader for Muslims already set many examples of gender equality through how he lived and the reforms he enacted in granting property and civic rights to women, that were novel for its time. Then, where are Vahit’s arcane ideas rooted?
The Quran also does not say that women must remain subservient to the man. 2:187 (Sura Al-Baqarah) speaks to the man and says, “Your spouses are a garment for you as you are for them”. 3:195 (Sura Al imran) says, “…"Never will I suffer to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female: Ye are members, one of another…”. Again, verses in the Quran makes multiple statements that paint men and women being spiritually equal and equal in the eyes of Allah. Then, who is a mortal man to establish discriminatory practices that violate these values?
Justice in War
In his restraint and strategic guidance, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) strives greatly to lay down principles of war during the period of struggle between 622 AD and 632 AD, until he triumphantly returns to Mecca after being banished for espousing Islam. There are many important lessons to learn about just practices during war, including concepts such as non-aggression, proper declaration, right intention, protection of civilian rights and properties, strict adherence to the covenants of war, and more. Thus, Vahit’s current mode of unprovoked aggression and the way he is using modern modes of war through provocation on social media, attacking symbols of secularism in the name of Islam, are violations of the intended path for Muslims.
Symbols of Islam
As Vahit wages his war on the Republic, one of the first things he unleashes is a pack of rabble rousers who go into an art exhibition and break statues and figurines. They mark the wall with 14:35 (Sura Ibrahim) when Prophet Ibrahim says “My Lord! Make this city secure, and keep me and my children away from the worship of idols.”
However, later we have Meryem telling one of the transgressors and now a fellow prison mate: “The Prophets were against the order created by the idols (i.e. a pagan culture that did not recognize the first shahadat of Islam which is the profession of Islam - ‘There is no God but God’). They destroyed idols that were symbols of an order that oppressed the poor and the unfortunate. Today’s idols are different.” She doesn’t define what these modern idols are but it is not statues or figures created as an expression of art.
There is so much that can be analyzed in the episode with regards to the religious framework, it would make for a very long read. Suffice it to say that whether in this world of fiction being depicted through Vahit’s radical interpretations, or in the real world, Islamic societies are still far from practicing Islam in its intended form. I am no Islamic scholar; merely a practicing Muslim in her pursuit of knowledge and in trying to understand the intended interpretations of the Quran. Regardless of everything I have experienced as a woman, seen or read in contradictory texts, I am unshaken in my faith in Allah and His intended framework for justice. Politicized interpretation of Islam, or any religion for that matter, is one of the biggest banes of human existence.
Secular Versus Religious
Divergent ideologies thrive on conflict with each other. Fundamentally, underlying doctrines for any new ideology usually form to address a perceived injustice in a given system. Throughout history, with dogmatic interpretations of religion, and politicization of religious rule of law, various kinds of oppressive and unjust practices pervaded society, which led to secular schools of thought. Similarly, too much deviation from a moral and just rule of law pushes the secular towards conservatism or religious constructs that provide for a more purpose driven life. This is a reversible cycle and, as such, both sides are necessary to provide a healthy balance to each other.
When we question where the concept of a supreme being or the concept of a God comes from, in an interview with NPR regarding her book A Case For God, Karen Armstrong said, “We have an idea of what we're talking about, but God was, as the Muslims say, Allah hu Akbar - God is always greater than anything we can understand.
And in the Quran, for example, God is continually saying, look, everything I'm saying to you is an ayah (a verse), a parable, a sign. Even the great statements like paradise or talk about creation or the last judgment, these are ayah. They're parables, symbols of realities that we, with our finite, earthbound minds, can't grasp.”
The greatness of Kızıl Goncalar in season 1 was how Cüneyd was used as a conduit to provide meaningful interpretations of some of these ayahs. His sermons, thought explorations or explanations were designed to understand the intended meaning of Islam. He used these in the context of education, relationships, moral codes, death and so much more. In contrast, we see Vahit providing self-serving interpretations of Allah’s words, exerting his power through plunder (using a vicious army to cower the followers), lies (accusing Meryem of murder), oppression (using poverty and weakness against the faniler) and more. I find this illustrative of the non-judgemental nature of how the tariqat is depicted. We witness the beauty of Islam as well as see how human machinations can manifest in practices that are contrary to the teachings of Islam. It’s not the religion or the organized form of the religion that is the problem. It is the evil intentions perpetrated by corruptible men and women that is the problem.
In the same vein, Levent quotes Atatürk beautifully when he defends the Republic. “you will disown me. You will even slander. My ideas, which will reach Yemen and Egypt, will strangle you.” Many of his words could be ascribed to the same intended pillars of Islam – justice, fight against oppression, championing women’s rights, education, tolerance, mutual respect, and more.
Except that Atatürk does not profess to be a divine messenger. Thus a secular school of thought is born which, in principle, is not that different from an Islamic school of thought. What differs is in how it is practiced.
This tension between the two ideologies is one of the alluring keystones of Kızıl Goncalar. Regardless of the outcry and the anger from the sects against the story, those who are watching the series with attention do not see the tariqat in a negative light. As with any social system, we see how human vices can lead to any well constructed system to become corrupted, be it religious or secular.
Unbreakable Bond
The most unlikely person tells Zeynep that the bond she shares with Cüneyd is unbreakable. Coming from Feyza, who has been obsessed with Cüneyd since the beginning, only underscores why the viewers have come to love the pair.
As we see Cüneyd struggling to hold on to his sanity after the trauma of learning of his pivotal role in his mother’s death, his one guiding light remains Zeynep. When he hears that Vahit will marry Zeynep, he finds his way through hidden passages and tunnels to reach the tariqat to try and save her. CunZey share a divine bond that no one can truly interfere with.
However, since the beginning of the story, Cüneyd has been on the verge of Dissociative Identity Disorder (“DID”) from all his repressed trauma. Pushed to the edge by Vahit’s revelation, Cüneyd’s guilty conscience has him hallucinating a mother who keeps pulling him to her at the expense of Zeynep. His mind, through Gül Ayşe, tells him that he allowed Zeynep to replace his mother in his heart.
In his mind, he only wanted Zeynep and his mother to be free. He wanted to keep his promise to Zeynep and stand guard, so she could be free. But he is also tormented by the knowledge that the attempt to set his mother free from her torment got her killed. What if the same happens with Zeynep? As his consciousness weaves in and out of reality and hallucinations, the burden of his emotional conflict becomes too great and he loses touch with his known reality. It is symbolic that this happens next to Gül Ayşe’s grave, the place where Cüneyd had recited to Zeynep this verse from Hayyam:
“This day & this night existed before you and I
The sky was always turning, as far as you see
Tread this ground gently,
Because the place you stepped on
Was the apple of a beauty’s eye
Five or ten years ago.
He stepped away from the grounds that raised him but his footprint will have remained.
I have to give a special shout out to Mert Yazıcıoğlu for his studied performance of a young man beginning to hallucinate and fighting the urge to slide into complete darkness, so he can fulfill his promise to the love of his life.
In Russell Crowe’s Academy Award winning performance in A Beautiful Mind as real life mathematician John Nash, we also saw a man who was overtaken by schizophrenia but through his love for his wife, and medical intervention, he was able to reconnect with life. In real life, despite his struggles with the disease, Nash could not only go back to teaching at Princeton for many years, he also went onto to win a Nobel Prize for his work on game theory. It is possible that Cüneyd is also able to follow a similar trajectory and connect with pieces of himself that will help him find his way to Zeynep and reclaim the tariqat.
In the meanwhile, at the nikah ceremony with Vahit, Zeynep makes a false claim of carrying Cüneyd’s child and that stops Vahit from marrying her. There is a misdirection towards the end when one of the fanis call her Hanım Anne, but she could have that honor as the mother of Cüneyd’s child as well. Cüneyd is still in her heart and remains as the beacon towards which she flows, like water. As we know, even if the water stops flowing, we still call it a fountain.
Kızıl Goncalar
I finally got insight into the title through the interview with the writer Sukru Necati Sahin, where he says, “I actually thought of Goncalar as all women in Turkey.” “We are living the story of the changing position of women in the world. If an alien were to look at the world to distinguish societies, the thing that would attract the most attention would be the different positions of women in each society. The world witnessed the lines getting blurred as more women entered social life with the industrial revolution. The changing position of women affects everything in history. All the resistance comes from there anyway.”
Zeynep and Meryem, as the protagonists, have suffered greatly but this story is also about the broader feminine struggle to thrive against institutional or social chains. We see similar chains reign in Hande, Beste and Mira as well albeit in different ways. As an example of such societal expectations, Beste pays the ultimate price because of her unhealthy obsession with being a mother.
Women are the fulcrum for positive change and society regresses whenever they are repressed. Society regresses when red buds are plucked too early without fulfilling the potential of their natural progression.
In this female centric narrative, there are so many layers for us to understand that to make it about a fight between the secular and the religious, or lamenting missed opportunities for an epic love story, is like looking at a beautiful flock of flying birds and crying about why the turtle is not with them.
Qadr
The episode starts with Meryem’s dream and a voice telling her to pay attention to Qadr – destiny – amidst the chaos. This reminder comes to her again when Levent comes to rescue her from her planned assassination, and she walks back to be stabbed by the pregnant woman planted to kill her. She knows this event must happen so that a better thing can happen in the future. By submitting herself to her qadr, she is placing herself in Allah’s plans.
Note that in Episode 17, Cüneyd had also used the word when he was by Zeynep’s hospital bed. We are repeatedly shown that we can only judge the present through the filter of what we have experienced but we cannot fully know what the future holds. Cüneyd also says something similar to Gül Ayşe at the beach when she asks him what she taught him about discerning between good and evil. There is spiritual enlightenment in allowing the universe to unfold towards an outcome as opposed to trying to force an outcome.
By the end of the episode, we are led to believe that all has been lost – Meryem is in a coma for 8 months, Cüneyd has lost touch with himself and living in the secular world as a secular man, Zeynep has a child in her arms as she remains under Vahit’s control, and Levent has become an active atheist who writes a book called “The God You Are Looking For Cannot Be Reached”. He is now a loud proponent of shutting down all sects and tariqats, stating that one doesn’t use aspirin to treat cancer. His earlier growing respect for the ways of the tariqat is gone.
The whole system, as we knew it, had to be abolished so that we can participate in the journey of it being re-formed. We are given hope when Cüneyd makes a nonchalant comment to Mira about how he would be eating dry bread with salt and pepper had she not brought him food, indicating that there are still pieces of the old Cüneyd in him.
The writing team led by Necati, and consisting of Melih Özyılmaz, Gamze Arslan and Deniz GürlekIn, has created this explosive start to the new season. We must have faith and embrace the fact that Qadr awaits. We must understand that, as Spinoza says in this episode’s epigram, truth is its own standard.
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