Prominent Turkish fiction writer Elif Shafak inaugurated the BookCity book fair Thursday in Milan.
Turkey is "sliding backwards fast", the author told ANSA ahead of the opening.
"We're losing democracy," added the author who opens the book fair at Milan's Teatro dal Verme with her new novel, The Three Daughters of Eve.
"I'm a feminist, and I support women's rights and the rights of LGBT people," she said. "In this respect Turkey is sliding backwards. There is an increase in domestic violence. We need to talk about difficult subjects like honour crimes, incest, gender violence, rape, homophobia. Women's rights cannot be postponed," she said. Published in Italy by Rizzoli, The Three Daughters of Eve tells the story of three friends - called the Sinner, the Believer and the Doubter - who are very different from one another while sharing the same Muslim background. The novel explores the condition of women, religion, politics, love and broken dreams in a Turkey whose potential remains "unexpressed". "I'm interested in the dance between faith and doubt," explained Shafak, adding that "for all intents and purposes" she does not consider herself religious.
"In truth I don't like organised religion or collective identity, but I'm spiritual in my own way," the writer said.
"People such as myself - agnostics, unorthodox mystics, humanists - are a minority in Turkey. But we exist, and we can challenge the duality between atheism and absolute religiousness," Shafak said. "It is difficult to be a writer in Turkey. You receive lots of love from people, from your readers. This is all very moving, but at the same time you also get lots of hate messages, smears, attacks. If you are a woman it is more difficult because there is a lot of sexism. But we must continue to imagine stories, raising our voice," Shafak said.
"Writers breathe through their words, this is why we must continue to write," explained the prolific London-based author who rose to international fame with her novel The Bastard of Istanbul.
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