Ilayda Kaplankiran, Author at The Orbital

30Nov

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News, Opinion

Westernisation of the Media

What is the value of human life? What is a “dominant western ideology”? It is best described as the propagation of a rigid geopolitical identity that prioritises western values, while concealing and alienating third world countries. As you can imagine, this is a deeply embedded narrative determining the discussions and outcomes in any political or academic space . Nearly all types of media coverage perpetuate western models of journalism, navigating desirable political views, and consequently overlooking the baseless claims that they might be making or insinuating. Historically, the tendency to privilege and perpetuate narrow-minded western thought traces back to the Imperial age. During a time when minority groups were glorified, and the elitist perspective involved “saving ...

The legality debate on abortion; a new age of misogyny

22Nov

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News

The legality debate on abortion; a new age of misogyny

Following on from the enforcement of the Senate Bill 8, on 1st September, women across the nation have been standing up and fighting for their reproductive freedom. A Texas statute that completely dismisses a woman’s fundamental right to decide on matters concerning her body, eliminates the option of terminating a pregnancy that is over six weeks. In many ways then, the Texas law is enacting a near-total ban on abortion, since most women don’t even know that they are pregnant during this timeframe. While it arguably bans abortions after the detection of a foetal heartbeat, medical experts have denounced this term as inaccurate; at six weeks of gestation there is neither a foetus nor a heartbeat. As a result of this widely accepted reform, there have been growing concerns and dangers r...

The Emphasis On Drinking During Freshers’ Week

18Oct

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Emphasis On Drinking During Freshers’ Week

With COVID-19 restrictions lifted and a gradual return to normality, Freshers’ Week will be going ahead as planned. While some will be enjoying the social opportunities that the legendary week has to offer, others might have a less than satisfactory experience; especially when we consider the pressure being placed upon students to consume excessive amounts of alcohol during the week. Either way, there will be a mixture of responses, but nevertheless it is integral that we normalise the inability to make friends in the first couple of weeks, and the stress that resonates with joining a new community. It’s easy to forget as a second or third year how isolating the first term of first year can be. All too often, university life has been circumscribed to the pervasive stereotype that...

Marginalisation Of The Kurdish Identity: a human rights violation

18Oct

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News

Marginalisation Of The Kurdish Identity: a human rights violation

Amongst all these humanitarian agencies who seek to protect and aid those suffering or victims of mistreatments, it is unbelievable to think that there are still constitutional restrictions entrenched to eradicate a cultural identity. Especially when it comes to a sensitive issue such as the Kurdish Question; a minority ethnicity that has fought endlessly to protect their rights, with many activists, politicians and lawyers currently imprisoned as a result. The spiralling political crisis that the question elicits today stems from nothing more than a backlash from the past. Following the break-up of the Ottoman empire in 1922, the many different ethnic groups living in the newly formed Republic of Turkey were forced to comply with ‘Turkification’ policies: a homogenising stance t...