Istanbul: Old and New

Istanbul is ground zero of the war between old and new. Here, a woman with a Muslim headscarf watches bikini-clad women frolic on the beach:

What's old and new? The old, of course, is the fiercely Western and secular Turkish society. The new is the resurgent Islam, battling secular Istanbul street-by-street and neighborhood-by-neighborhood.

Old Turkey:


New Turkey:

Many secular Turks refuse to go to highly Muslim neighborhoods, where people frown upon men and women walking together. So my guide was the daring and protean Linden:


a liberal, American friend of Nazli's who had no problem donning a headscarf to explore these treacherous parts of the city.