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How to dress properly in Istanbul

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Given the fact that Istanbul is a city inhabited majority of Muslims, you need to consider first if whether
you wear skimpy clothes, showing more skin as if the tailor ran out of fabric, but on second thought,
maybe not.

The patriarch of the Greek Ecumenical Church in Istanbul once complained about ‘naked women’ on
the street in the neighborhood where the patriarchate is located, Fener in the old Fatih district. Naked,
that is in his eyes: tourists in short skirts, shirts without sleeves. It’s against morality, he pointed out.
Technically, one is not naked when he/she wears clothes, but the point is taken. Fatih, on the European
side of town, is one of the most conservative districts of Istanbul, and as a tourist it’s certainly an idea to
adjust to that a little bit.

In Istanbul everything is possible when it comes to clothes: from total-cover black Islamic carsaf to the
shortest skirt with the highest heels and the deepest décolleté. However if you are new to the city,
chances are you don’t know the city well enough to know where to wear what, as people who live here
do. In Beyoglu or Nisantasi (around Taksim) nobody will bat an eyelid if you dress sexy, but you don’t
want to end up dressed like that in Fatih’s most conservative neighborhood, Carsamba, or in Aksaray,

where a lot of prostitutes offer their services. You might just get unwelcome approaches, or you just
won’t feel comfortable.

You also need to be careful on what you wear in Üsküdar, another not so modern part of town. Ladies
often throw a shawl around their shoulders and chest when they go out, and when they end up in a
more modern district, the shawl is taken off.

So, Istanbul is practically open to all sorts of clothes. But if you want to feel comfortable everywhere, it
is advisable for you throw a shawl in your bag in the morning (or buy one on the street for 5 to 10 lira),
so you can easily adjust to where you are when you feel it’s necessary, thus provide instant change to
conservative attire. Not because anybody would order you to cover up a bit but so that you won’t feel
uncomfortable.

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