Full Experience of Amsterdam West

This morning got up and did some online research and I came upon this picture that I had taken last weekend in Amsterdam West. It was a closed fashion exhibit which I recollect displayed a plethora of ladies' wear. I had luckily taken a picture of the sign and it had the title and address on it. When I looked it up it was part of a website that held fashion exhibits so I tried emailing - which got a bounce back. Then I called them and what sounded like an Indian man picked up and apparently the showroom had moved over to Dappermarkt (thus I suspect it was originally a showroom/business in the first place) - this is Amsterdam West market we frequent which apparently is a famous tourist attraction via Internet searching . He's agreed to having a talk on Monday, I might head over at around 4:00 pm just to have a brief chat & see what it is like to sell fashion to a large Muslim customer pool and the culture around Dappermarkt.

Afterwards, I headed around 12:00 to Dappermarkt to interview Selma, whose mother owns a head scarf store, but apparently her shop was closed and I called her but her sister picked up and let me know Selma would be coming later around 2-3 but then later informed me after I went around to do some exploring and tasting of frites & loempia, that she wouldn't be there at 2 and would have to reschedule. I'm going to try calling tomorrow and seeing if there is any time tomorrow evening or Saturday to interview.

I returned back to the dorms and did some internet research and found out some background on Köken Ergun, the Turkish artist we saw yesterday at the exhibit. The idea behind his Untitled headscarf piece according to an interview which really did fit into what I had thought of yesterday - was that women are faced with all sorts of pressures on the head scarf, and particularly in Turkey there's the Islamic history that has been covered & being smothered/repressed by the nationalistic government that wants to westernize and secularize - so there's the desire to wear the headscarf by religious reasons, the stigma that is attached due to current political moods, and the nationalistic pressure against it - which is a struggle for many Muslim women in Turkey which I think Ergun portrayed through the comparison with various headscarfs and finally the distinctive Turkish flag headscarf.

Then afterwards, I headed out to Albert Heijn to get some lovely stoopwafels & met up with Anne & Julia then later Irina, Ray, and Sunil! We wandered into Kruidvat and eventually came back to dorms. Afterwards, May-Brit from UvA crash course arrived by bike & Irina and I, all three of us, headed over towards Dappermarkt. We met up with Hassan (the owner of the Moroccan Islamic store) and greeted & chatted. He was very friendly and warm towards us asking how we are - and then Jaoul and his native Dutch friend who converted to Islam met up with us & we headed over the corner cafe where we chatted for about 2 hours! They gave great insight some of the most interesting things I remember are as follows:

* How there is a lack of internal motivation to do better in school or climb the social ladder amongst the 2nd and particularly 3rd generation Muslim immigrants - oftentimes boys will be completely lost on the social 'radar' not at school or at work - which is what Jaoul's friend is working on at the mosque - trying to create organizations and activities to inspire academic motivation in the younger generation

* There is a wide gap between the high performing Muslim students and the poor performers - there really isn't many middle level performers

* Women wear the headscarf because of direct expectations of the religion/text/etc, cultural and family traditions, a way to communicate their muslim status, as well as rebelling and being proud of their beliefs/background and to make a statement (that it is their own personal free choice to wear the headscarf) - there isn't one way

* There is level of flexibility and bending in the headscarf wearing rules here in the Netherlands

* Segregation in the Netherlands can be helped if try to modify some aspects of social presentation as well as social customs to be more fitting into Dutch society, as well as understand that you must 'accept' certain practices/beliefs of others - not that you have to follow - but you must accept & understand/respect there are neighbors believing in certain concepts & living certain lifestyles (two way? this idea of pragmatic tolerance)

* In the Netherlands it's not really the term 'integration' which has the connotation that you are absorbed into the culture - but more 'assimilation' where you are accepted