You know you’re iconic when…

… your picture ends up on a toilet door in a bar.

 

On the left: the ‘Woman in a red dress’ famous for being one of the first victims of the infamous ‘pepper spray’ or tear gas used by the police in recent Turkish protests. The photographs of her being sprayed again and again, clutching her handbag, but not moving an inch have been distributed on social media and held up as a source of inspiration as well as of reassurance that the protestors did not fit any particular image, but could be, if they wanted, stylish young women.

On the left, the ‘standing man’, dancer Erdem Gündüz, who stood in Taksim square for eight hours, in silent, peaceful protest, inspiring others to do the same in Istanbul and other cities. Erdem had also participated in protests against the headscarf ban in universities in 2004. The next standing person of note was a woman, in Ankara. 

(This picture was taken in a pub in Eskişehir, a university town in central Anatolia which has been very active in the protests, by a person who prefers to remain anonymous).