Something Has Gone Wrong

About the Book

Something has gone wrong Reflections from The heart The world we are living in is changing, but unfortunately it is not a happy change. I am a Turkish Muslim women, living in Europe. In this work you will find reflections and expressions from my heart, about every day subjects that made me think, cry and laugh. I believe that life is all about a constant “War against our bad inner desires”, “the Jihad against the Nafs”. As long as we do not sit down for a moment and ask ourselves where, how and why has it gone wrong, then the hate, fighting, wars will never end. To change the world, we have to start first with changing the “I”. Nobody can change the “I”, except the “I” itself. “Long live the snake as long as it does not bite me” “Beni sokmayan yilan bin yasasin” is an expression, that I want to use for people, who are indifferent about pains and sufferings of others, as long as it does not concern them. Acting like the three monkeys against injustice, will not bring any benefit to any of us, because “ a snake is a snake, It will poison without particularizing.” Fatma Yardimsever-Hakalmaz

About the Author

Who is Fatma? Fatma Yardimsever Hakalmaz was born in Karaman, Turkey. From the age of five, she has lived in Belgium. She is married and has two boys. She received her secondary education in a Catholic school in Antwerp. After she read a course in Law in the University of Antwerp for three years. While she was studying there, she worked with lawyers as a Sworn Translator of the Court. As a student, she helped in setting up and coordinating diverse associations like the European Association of Turkish Academics, the Association of Turkish and Belgian students, the Turkish Union in Antwerp and the Anatolian Theatre group in Antwerp. She has coordinated many multi-cultural and multi-religious projects, for this she worked with the City of Antwerp, Province of Antwerp, Unesco, de Acht, Proleron bis , High school in Brussels. Some of the projects were: “ De buren vieren feest” ( 1996), Mano Mundo Festival( 1997), Benefit concert for Turkey(1999), portival 2002, Vasten tradities in Antwerpen ( 1999-2000), Droom van een eigen zaak 2012, Allochtoon ondernemen 2013. After marriage, she played with her husband for four years in Anatolian Theatre Group. She featured in the plays “Töre 2002”, “Kanli Nigar 2003” and “Gilgamesh” 2004. Since 2004 she has been running a fashion house “The Wo-men Art Gallery”. She has her own designs under this label. With this fashion house, she participated in many Beauty contests, like The Miss African contest in Belgium, Miss Nigeria Belgium, Miss Maghreb and Miss alma. In most of these fashion shows she styled and costumed the mannequins and she was also among the jury.