turkish bath

i recently went to a hamam. a turkish bath.

after preparing in a bathing suit and placing used platic slippers upon your feet, you walk awkwardly to open the door of this frightening place with naked women from all over the village. upon this door opening, steam rises through and you walk into the marble room.

this hamam is fed by a natural spring, and the water runs through deep ridges in the floor. there is a large slab of platform in the middle of the room, where a topless woman is scrubbing another equally topless woman vigorously. now, if you have seen anything topless moving vigorously in any fashion before, you know how startling this is to see at very first.

the hamam is the place in which dirty housewives, wives, widows, daughters and other woman gather to cleanse themselves, and it is deep in turkish tradition. this also means that there is a certain comfort among them with their bodies. for example, the one woman sitting by the spring fed basin on the ground, pouring hot water upon her sagging skin, layers of skin over-lapping each other, and scrubbing with a thick foamed sponge.

this scene, in my opinion defines the hamam in the most cardinal fashion. the age-withered woman, cleansing away the dirt of her life. the hamam is the retreat for the work-hardened woman of the country.

in the spereate room lies a big pool of hot spring fed water. at the time you enter, it is empty, and you happily jump into the hot water, swimming accross it with memories of a dream of having the same in your future mansion. you are then brought back to earth with the sudden realization that probably hundreds of dirty old women have swam in this pool of steaming water, a realization stimulated by the clump of hair floating in the water. shuddering, you retreat, suppressing a dry-heave.

after about an hour of being scrubbed, being massaged, and gaining the sudden complete comfort of being naked in public, you leave the hot steaming room back to the cold world outside the door, wondering if you really are...clean.

you then recall the image of the turkish woman, flaps of skin overtop of each other. when you had arrived, you thought this a distasteful sight. but as you leave you have a new found respect and understanding. the women are allowed to retreat and be naked and clean. when they return home, they shall put back on that head scarf, and work toilessly for her husband and children.

you now realize the hamam is the giver of rights, the retreat of opinion, and the independance of turkish women.

you also conclude it would be very interesting from a lesbians perspective.