The next morning we traveled to the village of Guzelyurt and met with the local imam.  Many of us asked questions about the practice of Islam in Turkey. We learned that imams are trained and assigned positions by  the Directorate of Religious Affairs, also called the Diyanet. The Diyanet also drafts the weekly sermons that are given by the imams in over 85,000 mosques. This practice makes it very unlikely for Turkish Muslims to become radicalized. I am very grateful for this learning experience, but I was also frustrated by the response that I got regarding the roles of women. I wish I could have gone back and asked Lale how modern Turkish women feel about this and if the situation is leading  women to leave the mosque.

 

After lunch we stopped at a caravanserai, a medieval hostel. It was great fun exploring.

 

Later that afternoon, we arrived in Konya and visited the Mevlana Museum, home of the poet Rumi. This is a Muslim holy place. There were very few westerners there and people were dressed more conservatively.

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That evening we had dinner on our own. Luke and I chose to get room service and watch some Netflix.